Veggie burgers you can sink your teeth into! These are moist, tender and hold their own on the grill, in the pan or served right from the steamer (as shown). My bean-adverse son loves these anytime, anywhere and in any form.
Gluten free, plant-based & vegan, allium free (no onions or garlic), nut free, soy free, corn free, nightshade free and oil free.
Lentils and legumes are an important source of protein in my family. But my son strongly dislikes the texture of traditionally cooked beans–regardless of whether they are served ‘whole’ or mashed (i.e. refried beans). Soaking the beans in advance and steaming the resulting patties maximizes their moisture, flavor and nutritional profile, and prevents the beans from getting mushy or mealy.
The result? Success! My son wants these in everything from quesadillas to pizza and…<gasp> served as plain ole’ burgers, too! We love them too 🙂
Looks like food culture and desperation make a good pairing when it comes to solving recipe challenges. I’ll show you how to put these together.
Note: This method to this recipe is, admittedly, a little tricky. You might get it on the first try or it might take a couple of attempts. Maybe it’s because I know some of you are in the same boat as me, but I assure you it wouldn’t be posted if I didn’t think it was worth the effort 🙂 The good news is that any sub-optimal attempts can be repurposed into burrito filling or pizza topping. In the mean-time, please reach out with any questions.
Let’s begin!
Soak whole beans (kidney, pinto or black) overnight (6-8 hours). I used kidney beans for this post. Process the beans until they are coarsely, but uniformly, ground to about 1/8 the original size. In some cases, it may help to run the beans in batches in your food processor to achieve this uniform piece-size.
Note: uniformity in the small-piece-size of the processed beans is a key step for maintaining a consistent texture in the patty between vegetables and beans in the resulting patty. If the bean-pieces are only 1/2 or 1/3 the original size (of a kidney bean, let’s say), you will have al-dente ‘crunchy’ pieces in the cooked version…which may not be great.
Add the chia seeds to 1/4 cup of warm water in a small bowl and let sit.
Put up to 3 cups of chopped/diced vegetables of your choice in a large bowl. I used red cabbage, broccoli and carrots here. Combine with the coarsely ground beans and salt.
Except for the water, add the remaining ingredients, including the now gelatinous chia seeds, and stir. Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes. This will let the salt draw out additional moisture from the vegetables.
Some vegetables will release more water when exposed to salt than others. Add the water into the mixture 1/4 cup at a time (mixing it in each time) to create a mixture that is moist but not ‘wet.’ You may find that the full 3/4 cup of water is not needed.
Shape the mixture into patties. I use about 1/3 cup per patty. They may be somewhat more loosely formed than what you’re used to at this point, but don’t worry, the steaming process will bring these together.
Place the patties into the steamer. They don’t really expand in size during the cooking process so they can be placed close to each other (about 1″ apart shown below)
Bring the water to a boil. Steam for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 5 minutes.
Remove from the steamer using a heat safe spatula. Individual patties should come out easily and will continue to bind together as they cool.
These can be served as-is (shown here), or grilled/cooked in a skillet until browned. Note: Bring the patties to room temperature or less (~20-30 minutes) to ensure full structural integrity before proceeding to grill or pan fry the patties, if desired.
The raw mixture and cooked patties are refrigerator safe for 5 days. Steamed patties can be stored in the freezer for 1 month. I’m currently testing how long the raw mixture will hold in a freezer so will update this post once I have that information. Stay tuned!
Vegetable-Bean Burgers
Ingredients
- 3 cups raw, 1/4-inch chopped vegetables
- 2 cups whole, raw soaked beans (Roughly 1 to 1.25 cups dry)
- 1.5 cups dry oats
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup water
- .5 cup oat flour Or any gluten free variety or blend
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp ground mustard seed
- .5 tsp ground fenugreek
- 2.5 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Soak whole, dry beans (I often use kidney beans but black or pinto beans are fine) overnight (6-8 hours). Process until they are coarsely ground to within 1/8th of their original size. Depending on the beans, 1 to 1.25 cups of dry beans should be sufficient for getting at least 2 cups soaked beans. Any remaining soaked beans over 2 cups in quantity can be refrigerated or frozen for repurposing in a later recipe.
- Soak 2 tbsp of dry chia seeds in 1/4 cup of warm water
- Put up to 3 cups of vegetables in a large bowl. I used 1 cup each of carrots, red cabbage and broccoli for this post. Add the coarsely ground beans and salt to the bowl and combine with a spatula.
- Except for the water, add the remaining ingredients, including the now-gelatinous chia seed mixture, and combine with a spatula.
- Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes to allow the salt to draw out moisture from the vegetables. Add water 1/4 cup at a time (mixing each time) until you achieve a mixture that is moist but not wet.
- Form the moist (but not wet) mixture into patties ( I use 1/3 cup for each). Note: The patties will bind more loosely than typical burger patties during this step. Don’t worry. The steaming process will bring these together nicely.
- Place the patties into a steamer about 1/4″ apart. They don’t expand noticeably during the cooking process.
- Bring the water in the steamer to a boil and cook for 15 minutes. Let the burger patties rest for 5 minutes and then remove somewhat gently with a heat-safe spatula and onto a serving platter.
- The burgers are now ready to serve and will continue to bind as they cool. By the time you assemble these into burgers with toppings, etc. they will have excellent structural integrity.
- Be sure to bring these to room temperature or lower (~20-30 minutes) before grilling or pan-cooking them any further to get the typical ‘charred’ look.
Notes
Updated 1/10/19 to include further details in the recipe notes section.
