Homemade Veggie Burgers

These are my favorite veggie burgers!  They do take some time to make, but it's worth it- I like them so much better than store bought!  I just make them on a weekend when I have some time, and the batch lasts me throughout the week.

The recipe comes from here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001567.html

I omitted the sprouts this time, because I forgot to buy them.  I used toasted whole wheat pitas for the bread crumbs.  I used white beans instead of garbanzo beans.  I used 2 or 3 times as much cilantro as the recipe called for.  Veggie burgers are versatile- you can follow the recipe as a loose guide and do what you want!

 So first, I rinsed and strained 2 cans of white beans.  Into the blender went the beans plus 4 eggs, plus 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt.  I blended these 3 ingredients together, and poured mixture into a bowl.  Then to the bowl I added chopped onion, chopped cilantro, and lemon zest.  Next, I toasted 3 whole wheat pitas and crumbled them into the batter.

(A food processor, ninja, or mini-chopper can make the onion and cilantro chopping much easier.)

For this batch, I used extra lemon zest and it made a definite difference!  I could actually taste it this time, and it was wonderful.

I heated a couple tablespoons of olive oil on a frying pan and let the batter absorb the bread crumbs for about 10 minutes.  This is important!  If the batter is too thin, the burgers totally fall apart.

I poured 3 burgers at a time onto the frying pan, covered the pan, and let them cook on med-low heat for 7 minutes.  Then I flipped them, covered them again, and let them cook for another 5-6 minutes.

Cooking 3 burgers at a time for 13 minutes, 5 times in a row, is what makes these take so long. During these long cooking times, I cleaned up the kitchen and studied for school until the timer went off to flip the burgers.

I laid them on a plate to let them cool, then packaged them up for the week:

During the week, I heat a couple burgers in the microwave for about a minute and top with mashed avocado and salsa.  So dinner during the week takes about 2 minutes to prep.  

So easy, so healthy, so good!!