Happy Vegan Burger
These burgers are amazing. They aren’t meant to replicate beef, because they’re not beef. They’re whole-food, plant-based burgers that are filling, nutritious and delicious! They are packed with fiber. As my wonderful friend, Patti, said several times during a road trip across Canada, “happy pooper, happy person!” Love her. I’m remembering this as I write about these “happy” vegan burger “patties”!
Ingredient Insiders
Legumes
Soaking and cooking with dried beans is something I highly recommend for several reasons. If you’re interested, click this link and read about why. Almost everyone says lentil don’t need to be soaked. I agree, but I still soak mine. Why? Because in my body they act as ungodly gas-producers and I would prefer having friends and a husband to being alone. Soaking cures this problem 95%, and I will never go back to my prior ways.
Oil
A whole-food diet means you cannot have oil. I was a hard convert when I tried the whole-foot diet, because I LOVED “GOOD” OILS. Normally, to make these patties I’d have oil not only in the burgers but would also smother the sweet potatoes in it before baking. If you don’t want to eat whole-food, roast the sweet potatoes and onions in oil, no judgement. But using water works just as well, I’ve found, and the texture was perfect for the burgers. The sweet potato chunks held their form well. The surface got just a little dried out which meant they didn’t become mashed potatoes when mixed in with the other ingredients.
Bonding Agents
The apple sauce is often a substitute for oil and eggs. It adds moisture and also acts as a bonding agent so the patties don’t fall apart easily. Blending half the lentils into a paste is also super important for this. The first time I made the burgers I didn’t blend the lentils. Although they were tasty they were slightly crumbly, which wasn’t as nice. Blending fixed this. Finally, flaxseed, along with the other soluble fiber sources like oat bran, gels when it’s wet. It acts like a gentle glue, ensuring all the various ingredients stick together to help the patties hold their shape from preparation to consumption.
Roasted Nuts
Roasting nuts amplifies their flavour. On a normal day I’d usually add some oil to the mixture before baking, but I found no oil worked almost better. Crazy. The aroma of chopping freshly roasted nuts is like nothing else. Stop, and smell the roses nuts!
Ready for the oven. Perfectly roasted and aromatic!
Spices
Cardamom was an uncommon seed for my family to use growing up. What I’ve learned (the hard way) is that you want to remove the seeds from the pods. To brake the shells open, use wide brimmed knife and squash the pods to split them open. It’s then very easy to remove the small, dark seeds from the inside and put them into either a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to make into a powder.
The spice mix calls for green hot chili pepper powder. I’ve never purchased this anywhere, I just made my own because it was so easy. Any “chili” spice in the supermarket is a mix that is meant for a pot of chili. For these burgers I wanted a light heat – not cayenne nor crushed red chili peppers that would light your mouth on fire if you bite into one. This being said, if you don’t have the time to make or find pure hot chili powder, 1/8 tsp of cayenne or chipotle pepper would be a great substitute. If you try other hot spices, please leave a note in the comments and let everyone know the quantity how they turned out. Tip: add a little at a time!
Happy Vegan Burger
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Soak dry kidney beans for 12-24 hours
- Soak green and split red lentils together for 4-12 hours
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Dice onions and chop sweet potatoes into >1 cm chunks. Place them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet with approx. 1 cup of water poured on the sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, or until they're soft inside and starting to brown on the outside. If needed, add more water during baking.
- Cook kidney beans with 1 bay leaf (instructions). Will take approx 35-40 minutes
- Cook both green and red split lentils together with 2 bay leaves (instructions). Will take approx 10-15 minutes
- Place whole, dry nuts on a cookie sheet and add to lower rack of oven, underneath the sweet potato tray. Roast for 25 minutes
- Mix remaining ingredient together in a large bowl
- When the lentils are finished, drain excess water and remove bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to purée ~75% of the lentils. Transfer into the large bowl with the spices and mix well.
- Remove the pecans and walnuts from the oven, chop into medium sized pieces, add to the large bowl and mix.
- When the kidney beans are soft, drain excess water, remove bay leaf, add beans to the large bowl but do not mix in yet.
- Remove sweet potato and onions from the oven once they're soft and starting to brown. Drain any water if there is excess and add to the bowl. Mix a final time.
- If freezing the burgers, cut pieces of parchment paper into pieces to separate the burgers when they're stacked.
- Form balls the size of ½ cup in your hands and then flattening onto each parchment paper square (if freezing), a cookie sheet (if baking), or a nonstick BBQ mat (if BBQing)
- BBQ on high for approx 10 minutes a side, or until the outside has gotten a little crunchy. Overcooking them will cause them to dry out and get crumbly. Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 400°F for about 15 minutes per side if frozen, or 10-12 minutes a side if fresh.Freeze for up to 6-8 weeks. If possible, initially freeze the patties on a cookie sheet for a couple of hours (like photo below) to harden the outside. Then, stack in a freezer-safe container. This will make them MUCH easier to handle when you want to separate them. They are more delicate than a traditional beef burger patty.
Bon appétit!