Vegan No Oil Burger Base Recipe

Vegan No-Oil Burger Base Recipe

Today I wanted to make some veggie burgers (or bean burgers… ‘cause I didn’t really use veggies in the prototype other than onion and garlic).

ETA: Let me clarify why I’m making my own veggie burgers.  There are a lot of healthy choices for foods in grocery stores, but a lot of it is still processed foods.  My goal is to (without going crazy or turning this into a full time job) eat whole foods as often as possible and if a meal requires a mix of ingredients, I’d rather make it myself from scratch.  Oh… I’ll be posting a follow up to this as I got a new kitchen toy recently… so stay tuned.

I found a recipe online but I have to admit I am a bit lost in trying to provide a link to the original source recipe.  Apparently there’s a site called “Deliciously Ella” and the recipes there look great but I could find no search function nor could I find this recipe there.  Oddly enough, if you google the name of the recipe (Deliciously Ella’s Quinoa & Black Bean Burgers), there appear to be several sites that post the recipe but I have no clue about their affiliation with the originator so I’m just giving you the link to the original site, the name of the recipe, and my translation of the recipe (below).

As a reminder, I write recipes down here because it’s an easy place for me to find them again and also I often forget simple things like how long to IP my quinoa or how many servings something makes (for some reason my servings count never equals what a recipe claims)... I also usually make many substitutions and/or changes.

I did have to use the toaster oven, the food processor, and the instant pot, so it’s not a recipe that’s easy on the dishes, but I imagine these burgers will be great to freeze and eat later and that counts for a lot.

The following recipe is NOT the original Deliciously Ella’s recipe.  The following includes my alterations/changes.

My plan is that I wanted to try a good “base” recipe and then I can start experimenting with other ingredients (like kale, and jalapenos, and sweet potato, etc).  But for now, we start with the basic recipe.

Click here for a version you can print out easily

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced or mashed
• Veggie broth (maybe have ½ cup on-hand)
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (use less if you’re really sensitive to spicy)
• 1 heaping teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 8 oz of mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups of cooked quinoa
• 2 cups of cooked black beans (if you used canned, rinse them)
• 1 heaping tablespoon of cassava flour (or substitute)
• 1 teaspoon of arrowroot
• Bit of salt and pepper

Directions

• For the quinoa, I put 1 cup of quinoa to 1½ cups of broth into my instant pot and cook on manual for 1 minute with a 10 minute NPR.  This makes about 3 cups of cooked quinoa and since I only need 2 cups for the recipe, I usually save the other cup for a salad or I freeze it for future use.
• For the mushrooms, I toss them in some veggie broth, add a little salt and pepper, then roast them in my toaster oven on 400 for about 13 minutes.
• The onions and garlic I sauté in some veggie broth (just keep adding a little at a time to keep them from sticking) in a non-stick frying pan.  I know… why do things still stick in a non-stick frying pan?!  After a few minutes (you just don’t want raw garlic), add the spices then cook for another minute or two (again, adding broth if needed to make sure everything is coated and not sticking to the pan).
• Put everything into the food processor and mix until it’s all mixed up.
• Put that into the fridge for about 45 minutes (I put the entire food processor bowl into my fridge). 
• I then make patties on some unbleached parchment paper.  I managed 6 and 5 total.  They take up a lot of space in the fridge like this but it’s really nice to chill them again so they keep their shape (a bit) before you try to cook them.  I slid a chopping board beneath each set of burgers so that I could put them into and take them out of the fridge easily.
• After about 30 minutes in the fridge, put them onto new parchment paper on a baking tray and put them into a 350-degree pre-heated toaster oven (remember, I don’t have a big oven) for 20 minutes, flip then 20 more minutes (40 minutes total cooking time... or 50 minutes if you like them less soft).

I did try to cook them in my non-stick pan on the stove top but it was a complete disaster so I switched to baking them.

I just ate one totally plain.  Added nothing to it and really enjoyed it but I can see how these would be even better with dipping sauces or in a salad or with burger fixin’s… and I can’t wait to start modifying the recipe.

Sorry I didn’t have time to make a fancy presentation with veggies, etc… still recovering from PG&E’s three day power shutoff so not everything is in order yet.

If you try this, leave a comment and let me know how you like it.  I'd be particularly interested also if you try adding stuff to the burgers.

If you’re doing the Daily Dozen, three of my size burgers would equal one grain serving (½ cup cooked quinoa) and one beans serving (½ cup cooked beans).  Feel free to make your burgers larger than I did… I like small, thin burgers.  If you made 8 larger burgers instead of 12 small ones, it’d only take 2 burgers to equal a grain and a bean serving. 

Index of all my recipes