In my quest to try new healthy food so as not to fall into a boring routine, I decided to make (and eat) veggie burgers for the first time in my life last night. I still can’t get over how delicious they turned out to be! In fact, I just devoured one right before writing this post! The best part? It’s my own recipe. Not to brag – well, maybe just a little 😛 – but when you experiment in the kitchen so often, anything you make later on turns out to be a success. It’s all about trial and error.

I love eating out, but I’m IN LOVE with home cooking. When trying out a recipe for the first time, what I usually do is google a bit, and then proceed to coming up with my own recipe. I very rarely follow a recipe that I find online or in a cookbook 100%. I always make it my own.

Veggie burgers usually take some time to make. They’re easy to make, but they just take some time, so you might consider doubling the recipe to freeze a second batch. The below recipe yielded 7 burgers, and thank God for my food processor, it’s a life savior! I saved at least 20 minutes just by chopping and grating everything in it, in a flash! I simply can’t live without it!

Okay, let’s get straight to it; here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, minced

5 cloves of garlic, finely minced (I LOVE garlic! But you can opt for less garlic of course)

2 medium zucchinis, grated

1 large carrot, grated

2 cups mushrooms, finely chopped

1.5 cups broccoli florets, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried coriander

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 eggs

3/4 cup bread crumbs

Method:

In a food processor, chop the onions and proceed to cooking them in 1 tablespoon of evoo. Return to the food processor and mince the garlic cloves (yes, even those were minced in the food processor. I mean, why the heck not?), add them to the onions and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms and broccoli (also in the food processor :D) and add them to the onions and garlic. Finally, grate the zucchinis and the carrot (I did so in – you guessed it – the food processor :P. I told you, it saves my life every single time!) and add them to the pan. Season with the salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin and dried coriander, and continue to cook on low to medium heat, for about 15 minutes. The reason you need to cook all your veggies before turning them into veggie burgers is to ensure all the water is eliminated to avoid having soggy burgers later on.

When the veggie mixture cools down, crack in the eggs and add in the bread crumbs. Combine to form a homogeneous mixture.

Divide the mixture into same size balls.

Press the balls to form patties. I was able to get 7 patties.

Place patties in a tray in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up.

In a nonstick skillet, heat some evoo and sear the patties on both sides to get crispy brown sides. I used 1 tablespoon of evoo to sear 4 patties and I froze the remaining 3, so you might want to add some more oil if you want to cook all the patties.

When patties are golden and crispy on both sides (which should take about 5 minutes), place the skillet in a preheated oven to 200 degrees C for about 10 minutes so that the patties continue cooking and hold their shape. Quick hack: if your skillet’s handle is made of rubber and not stainless steel, wrap it up with foil before placing it in the oven. This should do the trick and avoid getting it ruined (you’re welcome :D)

To keep my meal healthy, I served the veggie burgers on a bed of lettuce and a slice of tomato (no bun), and I drizzled it with 2 teaspoons of Caesar dressing: SO good!

Bon appétit! 🙂