recipe: vegetarian burgers made from dried beans; information about the “Heart of the Matter” (click on images to see larger views and more photos)

Heart of the Matter (HotM) – Eating for Life: PICNICS

I believe I mentioned that we made vegetarian burgers to go on our hamburger buns. Sure, we turned the burgers into banquet burgers by adding bacon and cheese. But these had to be better for us than regular hamburgers. Don’t they?

Although… they didn’t taste like they were good for us. They tasted fabulous. With or without the bacon, I want to have these banquet burgers again soon!!

(click on image for larger view and more photos)

We are dedicated meat eaters, but we actually prefer vegetarian burgers to those made with ground meat. However, there are very few commercially made vegetarian burgers that pass our rigorous taste tests. “Licks nature burgers” come the closest. And they can be purchased for cooking at home. But they aren’t cheap!

Every time we have made falafel, we have thought that with a little tweaking, they might be turned into really great burgers. We’ve been waiting til the weather is cooler though because T was always a little nervous about grilling them on the barbecue. Wouldn’t they just fall apart?

When I was wheedling about introduced the idea of having hamburgers and onion rings, here’s how the conversation went:

E: Let’s try making burgers with chickpeas.

T: It’s too hot to be frying burgers AND onion rings. I don’t want to be standing dripping over the wok that long.

E: Can’t we barbecue?

T: I’m afraid they’ll fall apart.

E: Even if we put them on a rack? Come on! They’d be great! We could turn them into cheese burgers… no! banquet burgers, with bacon!

T: mmmm… bacon…

Ah, the magic word. Why didn’t I think of using “bacon” in my argument before?

(I know that there are now HotM readers who are horrified. Please do read on and allow me to reassure you that the bacon is not necessary for the finished dish. It’s nice if you’re allowed to eat it though.)

I love it when T gets excited about a project. He immediately got the chickpeas out to start soaking them and asked if I shouldn’t be getting the starter dough going for the hamburger buns the next day.

Here’s what T did to make the vegetarian burgers:

Vegetarian Burgers
based on our recipe for falafel

makes 2 burgers

• ½ c dried chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans (or a mixture of dried beans) +
• 1 small onion, chopped
• seasalt and pepper
• crushed chili flakes
• dried thyme
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• pinch cumin powder*
• ½ Tbsp water
• 2 – 3 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sunflower oil**
• bacon (optional)
• cheddar cheese (optional)
• 2 hamburger buns
• red leaf lettuce, dill pickles, onion, tomato, mustard, mayonnnaise, eggplant relish***, pickle relish (as per preferences)

preparation

1. On the evening before making the burgers, sort, wash and rinse the dried chickpeas well and place in a large bowl. Add plenty of cold water to cover by at least 2 inches. edit: add a pinch of baking soda to help soften the beans. We’ve found this is essential with chickpeas, especially if they are old. Cover the bowl and allow the chickpeas to soak overnight in a coolish spot.
2. The next day, remove any floating chickpeas. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. Pour the drained, uncooked chickpeas into a food processor. Add 1 Tbsp water. Whirl briefly til the chickpeas are about the size of regular small peas.
4. Add onion, seasalt, pepper, chili flakes, garlic, thyme, cumin powder* and oil**. Process until blended but not puréed.
5. Add some of the flour, and pulse. Add just enough flour so that dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Put the sludge into a bowl and refrigerate, covered for at least two hours.
6. Lay a piece of waxed paper on the counter. Divide the mixture into two glops. Press and push it with your hands to form two patties about 1cm thick. edit: It’s a good idea to make the patties as thin as possible. Make 4 patties rather than 2.++ Place the finished patties on a rack that can go on the barbecue.
7. Fire up the barbecue to medium heat. Place the rack onto the barbecue and cook the burgers until they are golden. Use extra caution when turning them. They are quite delicate and may want to fall apart.
8. Fry bacon, if using, and set aside. ****If you are serving onion rings, turn the barbecue off leaving the burgers inside and close the lid. Make the onion rings. When the onion rings are done, turn the barbecue back on to medium.
9. Thinly slice cheddar cheese, if using, and place on top of the burgers that are still in the barbecue.
10. Break or cut hamburger buns in half and place them crumb side down on the grill to warm through and lightly toast.
11. Remove the buns to a plate and place the burgers onto one half of each bun. Dress the burgers with whatever extras are preferred.

Chow down. Hamburgers are great with onion rings or oven-roasted potatoes, beet salad and corn-on-the-cob.

Notes
edit: + the burgers turn out very nicely if you use 3 different kinds of beans: black, kidney and garbanzo. The final colour of the pattie is much more pleasing.

edit: ++ Make the patties thinner rather than thicker to ensure that they cook through. It seems to be especially important if you use kidney and black beans.

What to do if you want to make burgers TONIGHT but haven’t pre-soaked the beans (Yes you can have vegetarian burgers on the same day!)

* I found the cumin flavour to be too pervasive and would omit it. (I’ve already begun my “no cumin in the vegetarian burgers campaign” with limited success. But I haven’t yet inserted the magic word in order to win the battle – I’m waiting for the correct moment.)

** Next time, we will not add oil to the chickpea mixture. Instead, we’ll liberally brush the patties with oil before putting them on their rack for grilling.

*** eggplant relish: I searched on the internet to find out what people did with eggplant and basil and then went into the kitchen to create the following eggplant relish: I fried onion, garlic, Asian eggplant, cayenne chili flakes in olive oil and then threw in salt, pepper, a lot of fresh basil, a little fresh mint, a little dried dillweed and a little red wine. Next time, I’ll throw in less salt. But even so, it was delicious.

**** Onion rings are best if they are served almost directly after being made. The really great thing about vegetarian burgers is that once they are made, they stay pretty much the same. They don’t dry out OR become mushy if they are left to sit for the time it takes to make the onion rings.

• our new recipe for hamburger buns
• our old recipe for standard sandwich bread and/or Hamburger Buns
• Oven roasted potatoes (use yukon golds instead of yams)
• Onion rings
• beet salad
• more beans and pulses
• blog recipes index
• recipes from OUR kitchen – index

The thing I really like about these vegetarian burgers is that there aren’t giant lumps of carrots, or corn, or peas, or beans. And there’s zero tofu (I just don’t get tofu).

The texture of the vegetarian burger is just like a burger made with ground meat. And the taste is great! But the most comforting thing about them is that if there does happen to be a small slightly chewier lump in the finished burger, there is complete assurance that the lump isn’t a piece of cartilage or hoof. It’s so much nicer knowing that the chewy piece is just a slightly larger piece of chickpea.

Next time we make them, we may try soaking kidney beans as well as chickpeas, to have a mixture. Maybe we should add some black beans and romanos as well.

These almost-vegetarian burgers are garnished with cheese, bacon, red leaf lettuce, tomato, pickle, thinly sliced onion, mayonnaise, mustard and eggplant relish. With beet salad and onion rings on the side. We also had the most wonderful corn on the cob. It was beautifully sweet – purchased in Chinatown from one of the outside street vendors. (Sorry, no photographic proof of the corn.)

Hey, I have an idea!! Let’s have hamburgers again! (no cumin please… :-))

Leave out the bacon to make this dinner completely vegetarian and worthy of HotM. But even with the bacon, this might almost pass as “Eating for life” fare. However, without the bacon, I would think that this definitely qualifies as heart-healthy!!