Mushroom and quinoa vegan burger

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Burgers don't have to be off the menu if you're planning a healthy January. Deena's veggie burger is packed with colour, depth and succulence, with good levels of iron too.

First published in 2015
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I could spiral into a discussion about why restaurants don’t do vegetarian food so well, but that would be repetitive wouldn’t it. After a disappointing veggie burger with my son (a couple of baps with some grilled peppers and courgette tumbling out of it), I decided to make burgers myself for our next excursion.

Now, I have tried innumerate versions of the veggie burger but none have made it onto the blog. Is a burger, ‘special’ enough to blog about? Besides, many of the iterations felt either too; wet, or eggy, dry and crumbly, or just doughy. I simply wanted a burger that’s lean and an option for healthy vegetarian eating but I have been mindful about retaining the moisture and of course it has to have a crisp exterior. Otherwise what would be the point?

I like colour and depth and succulence, as all burger lovers do. I am particularly pleased with recipe because I have managed to pack in some quinoa and even some iron-level boosting dried apricots. So, I am sharing with you this burger recipe because it really does the job.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

To serve

Method

1
To begin, cook the quinoa following pack instructions and leave it to cool
2
Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and then shallow fry the mushrooms with the chaat masala until they soften and lightly brown. Remove from the heat and leave to cool
3
Combine the drained chickpeas, tahini, soy sauce and garlic in a food processor and pulse them until they are almost a smooth paste. Add the parsley and salt if needed, but be careful, the chaat masala and soy sauce are both salty
4
Turn the chickpea paste into a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs, dried apricots, mushrooms, spices and quinoa. Mix them thoroughly and then leave them in the fridge to settle for about 15 minutes
5
Form 8 equal sized patties and place them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and then let them firm up in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I left them in overnight
6
Preheat an oven to 200°C/gas mark 6
7
Once the burgers are ready, place them on a baking tray and bake for 20–25 minutes until they are golden
8
Serve them hot with the garnishes
First published in 2015
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Deena is a food writer with work published in UK magazines such as BBC Good Food, Delicious, Cook Veg and Fork.

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