Vegan / Veggie Burger
A tasty vegan/ veggie burger is something that is always good to have up your sleeve. It’s a great way to get excited about a Meat Free Monday meal or to have one dish that can bring people with different dietary requirements together.
I served this burger with sweet potato fries, halloumi chips, houmous, my Bombay sauce and a simple sauce of tahini mixed with yoghurt. You can choose one dip or none at all, but the options to cater for different tastes are here. It is rare that you can serve one dish that can bring vegans, vegetarians and non veggies lovers together and they will all feel the better for it.
The added bonus of this recipe is that sometimes getting vegetables into your children’s diet that they would not ordinarily eat is always tricky. Disguising them in pasta sauces (like my No Bake Lasagne where no one would know there is carrot, celery, peppers and onions in the sauce) is a good way. My theory is to take what they love eating, in this case a burger and add what they need.
When you read the ingredients you may think no way my friends/family/kids eat that. Trust me, my son ate and loved the whole burger and he eats none of the vegetables on the list, including cooked carrots!
My trick was to blend all the ingredients into indistinguishable small pieces. When my daughter came into the kitchen and saw the veggie burgers frying she commented on how ‘meaty’ they looked. The beetroot flavour does not come through but gives a wonderful burger-like colour to the end product.
With the change in the seasons and so many colds going around, I felt after this meal we had added vitamins and minerals on a micro level that we wouldn’t ordinarily get into our diets in one sitting. I even added thyme via the za‘atar as it contains Vitamin C. If you don’t have za‘atar ( I used one that contained roasted sesame seeds, Jordanian thyme, wild sumac, olive oil and Persian thyme), it would taste as delicious if you added a level tablespoon of thyme or for a more middle eastern flavouring a teaspoon each of ground coriander and cumin.
The burgers are a cross between tasty falafels and a veggie burger in texture. They can be adapted for vegans by increasing the oats as the binder and leaving out the eggs and not serving the halloumi chips. The list of ingredients may look long, but everything is popped into a food processor or if you prefer a chunkier veggie burger you can grate or chop the vegetables and just blend the chickpeas in the food processor.
Chop and roast sweet potatoes to serve with the burgers.
Add halloumi cheese to the roasting pan or better still fry the halloumi.
- For the veggie burger
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion
- 2 cooked beetroots
- 1 courgette
- 2 large carrots
- 100g porridge oats
- 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- 3 tablespoons tahini paste
- 2 teaspoons Za'atar
- 1-2 red chillis (optional or chilli to your taste)
- 1 egg (omit for vegans)
- Salt to taste
- Burger buns and salad of your choice
- Add the red onion, beetroots, courgette, carrots and spring onions into a food processor and blend to a fine chop.
- If you don't have a food processor you can chop or grate the vegetables.
- Add the olive oil to a frying pan.
- Empty the vegetable mixture from the food processor into the frying pan. Set the food processor bowl to one side, don't clean it, you still need to blend the chickpeas and tahini.
- Dry fry the vegetables until all the water has been released and evaporates.
- Add the oats, chickpeas, tahini, coriander, chillis and egg (if using) into the food processor and blend to combine the mixture to a smooth paste.
- Once the vegetables have cooked, add them back into the food processor and blend the chickpea mixture and the vegetables together to a smooth consistency.
- Allow the mixture to cool and firm for about 30 minutes or the mixture can be left overnight in the fridge.
- Divide the mixture into six round burger shapes or smaller patties for a lunch or canapé.
- Fry or bake the burgers until they are golden brown.
- Serve the burgers in a lightly toasted bun of your choosing with salad leaves or fresh spinach. I like to serve healthy sweet potato fries, a coriander pesto and a houmous or tahini sauce.
