Veggie Burgers: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I love hamburgers in the summer and so in order to mimic them I thought that I’d give these veggie patties a try. I gave them a try because the recipe comes from Guy Fieri, who is a huge meat lover. While I changed the recipe a tiny bit because I was missing some ingredients, they still had the same problem that I have with most veggie patties: They are so dry! Even with the yummy garlic mayo. I have to agree with Heidi from 101cookbooks that veggie burgers are dry because of the bun. It's just all fiber on fiber on top of bread, creating what I call the Sahara Experience in your mouth. I should have done what she does, use the patty as the bun and pile all the yummy stuff in between the patties. I trusted Guy though because he’s such a huge meat eater. So what did I do with the other two patties that were left over? Well my friend, I rescued them. I took one to work the next day, put it, some tomato, lettuce and garlic mayo in a tortilla and made a wrap. It was really tasty and not dry at all, due to the lack of bun. I think that next time I make them I’ll make this recipe instead of the mayo.

When it comes to veggie patties in general, there are a few that I just won’t eat. Gardenburger is one of them, as is the “flame broiled” or whatever Morningstar version of the gardenbuger. The taste is just too strange to me. Plus, they give me horrible gas. Yes, that’s right, I said it. Gas! It’s just best to stay away from them entirely. Then there are the other veggie patties, those homemade concoctions that you find all throughout the internet on vegetarian websites. These are almost always dry AND lack flavor. So once I find a recipe that I think has some actual flavor and has the potential to be not Sahara-ish, I will now either follow Heidi’s lead and use them for buns or make them into a wrap. You'll have to endure one more blurry photo as I had Jenn take it with her iPhone.


Now, without further ado, the following is my take on Guy’s “burger”.
Prep Time: 45 min
Inactive Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 6 min
Level: Intermediate
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 ounces olive oil
3 tablespoons diced red onion
2 tablespoons diced black olives
2 tablespoons diced green bell peppers (fairly large dice on this one)
1 teaspoon diced jalapeno (don't forget to remove seeds AND veins)
1 1/2 tablespoons diced garlic
1/2 cup black beans, drained
1/2 cup chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup white beans, drained
6 ounces rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon ground sage
2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg
Directions
In a medium saute pan over medium heat, add 1-ounce olive oil and all raw vegetables except beans. Saute until translucent. Remove and cool.

Add veggies to beans and mix thoroughly. Add all dry ingredients along with the egg. Thoroughly mix all ingredients and form into 4 patties, once formed tightly wrap each in saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Wrapping them will greatly help them stick together when you cook them.

In saute pan add 1-ounce olive oil, and cook patties 2 to 3 minutes per side.

If making a wrap chop in half to fit into tortilla. Eat with tomato, lettuce and either garlicy mayo, or the recipe mentioned above.

Chow!