Veggie Burger Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil From Veggie Stock Leftovers... or Burgers and Slaw

Apparently today was cooking day.  You know how sometimes when you're on the internet and you're looking at something like Pinterest and then you click on something cool and then that leads to another article and then that leads to a DIY project and then that leads to....  yeah, and the next thing you know you're down the rabbit hole and three hours have disappeared.

That's what today was like, but it was in the kitchen.

This morning I started by making veggie broth (click here for my recipe on that... which you'll pretty much need if you want to make THIS recipe).

So there were a ton of awesomely healthy organic veggies that I had no use for after I strained the stock and put it into the freezer.

No way could I just put all that goodness into the compost.  Well, I put a little of the celery into the compost because I didn't feel all that celery was necessary in my upcoming experiment.

I strained all the veggies and measured them... six cups.  I admit I ended up wasting two cups of the cooked down veggies because I only used two cups of veggies in each batch of burgers and after making two batches, I was tired.  Yeah, I probably could have frozen the veggies and used them for something else, but seriously... I was kind of picking out the celery and setting that into the two cups I wasn't gonna use.

So I hauled out my VERY HEAVY food processor and then I remembered I had cabbage in the fridge.  Ha!  Perfect time to make cole slaw (I only pull the food processor out like once every two months).  So before all the mushy ingredients for the burgers went into the machine, I quickly slawed up some red cabbage, some green cabbage, and grated some carrots.  Voila!  (Then I set that mix aside for a minute.)

So here's the recipe for the burgers I made using these leftover veggies.  This is ONE recipe... I ended up doubling it, thus using up four cups of the veggies.  In theory, you don't HAVE to make stock in order to make these burgers... just cook up two cups worth of veggies you like.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked veggies (click here to see what I used)
• 1½ cup cooked brown rice
• 1 cup cooked beans (any type... I used Pinto)
• ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon flax seed
• 1 tablespoon chia seed
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• A couple grinds of black pepper

Feel free to make variations... makes life interesting.

I put everything into the food processor and just ran it until most of the big things looked like they were no longer big and the spices seemed to be mixed in well.

I put the mixture into a bowl in the fridge to chill for awhile.  I find it easier to make the burgers if the mix is chilled but it's not a deal breaker.  I had a few mins while I made the slaw dressing.

I used the dressing from this recipe of mine.  I didn't have any fresh ginger, though, so I just used some powdered (maybe about 1/2 teaspoon or so).

Oh, I was also pre-heating the oven... to 400.  But remember, it's a toaster oven so things may be different in a regular sized oven.

Anyway, I put my parchment paper down onto the baking pan and made six flat patties (just scooped a blob of burger stuff then flattened it out on the pan... nothing pretty or precise).

I cooked them for 30 minutes at 400.  

There's definitely a tooth to the burgers (maybe the twice cooked rice?), but I like them this way.  If you prefer them softer, maybe less cooking time or temp.

So in the end, a large chunk of the day was gone (and that doesn't even include doing all the dishes), but dang... I've got a freezer full of veggie stock and burgers (which are awesome for traveling)... and I've got coleslaw all made up for the next three days.  Whoohoo!

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