Oil free, Veggie Overload Burger- vegan, baked.

The joy of finding a healthy alternative to fast food is priceless, and it incrementally increases with the deliciousness in each bite of the healthy version. In this day and age, where there are numerous fake meat alternatives to replace the processed meat burgers, there is always a void for fresh veggie based burgers.

Making a burger with loads of veggies in under an hour, without oil, without any preservatives, is much simpler than most people imagine. And the best part, you can adjust the veggies, spices per your choice, including the kind you want and the amount you want.

This recipe was born when I had loads of zucchini in the fridge, and the kids were dreaming about the fancy restaurant burgers, which they cannot have with the pandemic (Also, its hard to find oil free, less salt, healthy burgers at a restaurant). So, we went off grating a whole bunch of veggies and found the right formula of seasoning it/ binding it nicely. The next step was baking it, before anxiously waiting to see the ‘yumm..’ feeling on the little faces .

With the right amount of crunch, taste and satiety, these patties are totally worth the upper body workout that you will do to grate the veggies. Eat it with traditional burger buns, or just layered with lettuce, or just dip them in your favorite sauce and eat for a snack, or cut these patties and top it on a salad, the possibilities are too many:)

P.S- This burger is soy free, nut free, and if you are sensitive to beans- it is bean free too ( does have some chickpea flour which is a legume like beans).

Oil free, Veggie Overload Burger- vegan, baked

Clean out the fridge and make a super yummy burger that is oil free and satisfyingly nourishing

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8 people

Equipment

• grater

Ingredients

  

Veggies

• 4 zucchinis – grated. water squeezed
• 1/2 head medium cauliflower- grated, steamed ca use riced cauliflower store bought
• 2 carrots- grated
• 1 sweet potato – grated, steamed
• 1/2 cup frozen corn – thawed
• 1/2 cup frozen peas- thawed
• 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
• 1 stem green onion- chopped

To bind

• 1 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• 1 cup cooked brown rice or millet or quinoa
• 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax meal with 6 tbsp water- wait for 10 min)

Spices

• 1 tbsp paprika or red chili powder
• 1 tsp chipotle powder optional but gives a nice spice kick
• 2 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tbsp cumin powder
• 1 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• salt to taste can use miso paste instead

Instructions

 

Getting Veggies ready

• Have a grater that can make large shreds from veggies.

  Start with zucchini. Do not peel, just wash, cut the bottom and top ends, and go grating.

  Put the grated zucchini in a muslin cloth or nut milk bag and squeeze to remove most of the water. Save the water to add to a smoothie or a soup.

  Rice the fresh cauliflower by grating it and put it in microwave with 1/4 cup water to steam it, per your microwave settings ( usually 4-5 min). Again squeeze the water out of steamed cauliflower, just like you did with zucchini. Save the water to add to a smoothie or a soup or your next cooking adventure.

  Grate the sweet potato into a bowl and stick it in the microwave for 3-4 min, to cook it.

  Take a big bowl and add all the veggies that you have so far.

  Grate a carrot and add to the veggie bowl. Add thawed corn, and if you like a handful of peas.

  Add the chopped cilantro and mix them all well .

Making the patty mixture

• Now to the veggie mixture, add the spices as mentioned above.

  Have your flax eggs made by mixing 2 tbsp flax meal with 6 tbsp water and letting them rest for 10 min.

  Then add chick pea flour. Start with one cup. Add the breadcrumbs followed by the cooked brown rice or millet. You can even use cooked quinoa in place of rice. Add the flax eggs.

  Using your hand, mix all the ingredients into a slightly firm mixture that doesn't fall apart.

  At this stage if you see the mixture is too moist, add another 1/4 cup chickpea flour.

  Then add the green onions that are chopped.

  Now start making patties of your desired size, shape, usually about 3/4 inch thick with your hands.

Cooking- bake vs pan fry

• I love the baked version, because they are crispier and use almost no oil. Preheat oven to 375 F, You make the patties with your hands and lay them on a parchment paper in a cookie tray. Use a gentle spray of avocado oil on top if you want, but not needed. They do perfectly well without oil in the oven.

  Bake for 25-30 min, and flip in the middle around 15 min mark.

  You can pan fry them in a nonstick pan on low- medium heat for 15 min. Flip them mid way through. They get more brown on the surface and do better with a little more oil sprayed on the pan to facilitate the flipping process.

  You can eat these patties with burger buns, or just wrap them in lettuce with onion , tomato and some vegan mayo with avocado–my favorite way to enjoy these– truly vegilicious!!

  The above measurements make about 12-14 good size patties. So adjust per your need. You can save them in fridge for a week and warm them up in microwave right before eating.