Vegetarian Burgers

These burgers are so easy, so cheap and so tasty it will blow your mind. It blew mine. Can't you tell from my disjointed post? They cost me about 20 cents each to make and we loved them. You most certainly can eat it on a whole wheat bun like I should have but they were leftover from the barbeque last week ... After the photo I tossed the top half to someone else and ate it open faced. They are also good in a tortilla or on a lettuce wrap! (Oh how I love lettuce wraps - I get all the burger goodness and don't really care about the loss of bread.) Next time we'll add a ton of vegetables to it!

Veggie Burgers!

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cups cooked beans (pinto, red, black, white, etc)
3 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (or you can use rolled oats)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/4 medium sized onion, chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
several dashes of your favorite hot sauce, optional (I guess!)

Throw your beans into a bowl and mash up with a fork. Mix everything else in a work together until the consistancy is moist but not totally sticky. You may have to add more bread crumbs (depending on the beans you use.)


Place a nonstick pan over medium high heat.
Shape into bun sized patties and cook (2-3 at a time depending on your pan size) for about 4 minutes on each side. You want them to be nice and toasty brown. Flip over and toast the other side.
Now take your burgers and put them on a cookie sheet to let them cool. They will firm up while they cool (like magic.) When you reheat them they will retain their firmness. I could even put mine out on the grill for a bit of charred goodness flavor. Put them on a bun with your favorite condiments and don't forget the veggies! We put tomato, avocado, pickles and arugula on them.
Oh and I even crumbled one up and had it in a wrap with some hummus and arugula. Divine!
You can store them in a plastic bag in the fridge for several days or if you want to freeze them keep them on the cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer. When they are completely frozen take them off the cookie sheet, bag em, tag em and eat them in a couple of months, okay?