Best Burgers - Seriously!

Everyone loves burgers right?  I sure do.  And these burgers really are the best.  And by best I mean delicious, nutritious, satisfying, versatile and very easy to make.   I think that even die-hard meat eaters will love these, especially if you don't mention they contain soya beans and chick peas!  They really are tasty and the texture is just perfect.

I have the wonderful Dame Alison Holst and son to thank again for this one!  I have made just a few changes to the original recipe found in "Meals Without Meat".  Unfortunately this fantastic cook book is currently out of print.  I got my copy in a dusty second hand book shop in Christchurch a few years ago and have baked many delicious dinners from it.

Vegan Best Bean Burgers

Makes 8-12 depending on the size.

Ingredients:

½ cup (80gm) chick peas

½ cup (75gm) soybeans

½ cup (60gm)sunflower kernels
½ cup (35gm)rolled oats

¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

¼ flour

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon marjoram

1 teaspoon salt

About 1 cup water

1½ tablespoons sweet/dark soya sauce (30ml)

2 cloves crushed garlic

Optional - ½ onion very finely chopped

Oil to cooking them in

Method

1. Use a food processor, or blender, or coffee grinder to grind the first 4 ingredients to the consistency of dry bread crumbs.  Depending on the machine you use, it will probably be best to do a little at a time.  I found that my blender worked best, especially on the "ice" setting.  The chickpeas and soyabeans do take a bit of grinding (and therefore noise making).  Process the oats just a little - not too fine (or you could just use quick oats instead). 

2. Mix together all the dry ingredients.  It comes to about 3 cups of dry ingredients.

3. Add most of the water, soya sauce, garlic and onion if you are using it.   If the mixture doesn't come together easily then add a little more water.

4. Allow to stand for at least 15 minutes.

5. Shape into burgers.

6. Generously coat a fry pan in oil and bring to medium heat.

7. Cook the burgers for 5+ minutes on each side.  It is best to cover the pan with a lid as the steam will ensure that the burgers cook through properly without burning the bottom.

8. Enjoy!

You can prepare these burgers up to step 2 and then store the dry ingredients in an airtight container until required.  So next time I am going to grind up multiple batches worth while I have the blender out so that I can have the burger mix ready to go for quick and easy dinners.

Also, I only cooked 4 burgers the first night and then cooked the rest fresh the next night.  The mixture held together even better when it had soaked over night.  We had the burgers with jacket potatoes and other veggies the first night.  And then we had them as "burgers" in buns with lots of salad.  The bean burgers worked really well for both these meals.

If you use onion it really does have to be chopped finely.  The onion is weakest link in the binding of these burgers.  So leave the onion out if you will find it distressing to have a little piece crumble off.  I think I would leave the onion out if I was taking these burgers to a BBQ so I wouldn't have to worry about a heavy handed burger flipper possibly damaging my creations.

The original recipe calls for pea flour.  Pea flour!!  Certainly not at my local supermarket.  But a sweet lady at my local organic store kindly ground up some split peas to flour consistency.  I think the pea flour does add to the flavour but don't worry if you can't get it - the burgers will still be wonderful with regular flour.

Vegan Shepherds Pie

This recipe is adapted from"Meals without Meat" by the mother of NZ cooking, Alison Holst, and her vegetarian son, Simon.  I highly recommend this book - lots of tasty meals that are inexpensive and will satisfy many "meat" eaters also.  A great place to start if you want to gradually incorporate some meatless meals into your diet.

Ingredients:
A) Potato Topping
1 kg of potatoes
2 tablespoons vegan margarine (I used Nuttelex olive)
Half cup soy milk

B) Hearty Vegan Mix
2 large onions (this time I used 1 onion and half of a large leek that was left over from the Corn Chowder)
2 cloves garlic
Good splash of olive oil
400gm Mushrooms
3 tablespoons plane flour
1 generous teaspoon each of
- basil
- oreganum
- marjoram
- paprika
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 teaspoons veggie stock powder
2 tins red kidney beans, drained (or you could soak/pre-boil one cup of kidney beans)
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1.5 cups of water

Method:
1. Put the potatoes on to boil in lightly salted water.
2. Brown the onions and garlic in the olive oil until medium brown - do not rush this step
3. Add the mushrooms and cook until reduced and lightly browned
4. Add the flour and cook until browned - you need to keep stirring at this point but don't worry if it gets a bit stuck to the bottom as it will add to the hearty flavour as it lifts off when the water is added.
5. Add all the rest of the ingredients and heat until it is cooked through.
6. Drain the potatoes thoroughly and then mash with margarine and soy milk.  I get out the electric beater and give them a good whipping.
7. Assemble in a lasagna dish or similar - with Hearty Vegan Mix on the bottom and Potato mash on top
or - if you have more time (or just really like pies) then line 2 pie dishes with shortcrust pastry, bake blind for ~ 10 minutes then assemble the pie.
8. Spread a little melted margarine on top so that it browns nicely.  I sprinkled some paprika on top of mine this time but I think it looks nicer without so I will leave it off next time.  Then bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
9.  Enjoy!  Serve it with some steamed greens to make it a more balanced meal.  I served it with Brussel sprouts and green beans which complimented the pie really well.

The original recipe uses capsicum but unfortunately it gives me indigestion so I have always used mushrooms instead and it works really well.

We thoroughly enjoyed out dinner.  And the pie is even better the next day (who doesn't love leftovers).  Definitely a recipe I will come back to regularly.

*** For my faux pas with Worchestershire sauce see the comments below.  Oops!