Veggie burger

What is better than a good burger? Alright, a lot of things ^^. But a well prepared burger, it’s still great! And it’s even better if it’s vegetarian :) So I’m going to present you my veggie burger recipe. And more exactly I’m going to start with the vegetarian steak.

This vegetarian steak has no reason to be jealous of a classic one: it’s soft, flavorful and contains a lot of proteins! Let’s go for the recipe.

For 6 steaks, put aside:

• Une boite de pois chiches (ou bien Kik Ärter pour les apprentis Suédois ;)
• 100g d’épinards (décongelés pour ma part)
• 1 onion
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tablespoons flour
• Some breadcrumbs
• Paprika
• Salt, pepper

Preparation of the steak

First, mix in a blender: the onion cut in 4, the chick peas and the drained spinach. Do not mix it too much, you don’t want to get a purée! The idea is to keep some small pieces to have an ideal consistency for the steak.

Then add the egg and the spices: salt, pepper, paprika. Mix again.

In a salad bowl, add the flour and some breadcrumbs to the mix.

Mix all the ingredients and if you need, add some breadcrumbs again until getting a good consistency. The paste you get must be malleable but not liquid.

There you go! Your veggie steak paste is now ready!

COOKING

Take the equivalent of two tablespoons of the paste.

In a hot oiled frying pan, put the paste and press it with the back of the tablespoon to form a steak. Put the lid onto the pan and let cook gently for 10-15 minutes. Turn the steak over at half the time. Both sides must be slightly browned. 

Preparation of the burger

Now I’m going to give you some ideas to prepare your burger.

Choose some sauces

• Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, tomato paste or even some hot sauce for the brave ones.

You can also choose a condiment

• Pickles, capers, etc.

Finally, you will need

• 1 hamburger bun
• 2 tomato slices
• 1 cheese slice (or another kind of cheese: goat cheese, blue cheese, cream cheese) 
• ½ thinly sliced onion
• Some spinach leaves

Brown the onion with some olive oil.

One minute before the steak is cooked, put a slice of cheese on top of it and put the lid back.

Toast the two halves of the burger bun. Spread the chosen sauces on the lower half bun. Place the steak on it. Eventually add the onion on the melted cheese. Complete with the two slices of tomato, the condiments and the green salad.

Spread the sauces on the top part of the bun and close the burger!

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve hot!

Choose some green salad as a side dish or some French fries for those who feel very hungry :)

You can just savour you burger well warmed, flavoured as you like and enjoy its softness.

                                                   

TIPS AND TRICKS

This is a full way to prepare a burger! In my case, I like my burger with only some tomato paste mixed with some mustard, a bit of cream cheese to contrast with the steak texture and a few capers! Yummy!

This time, I put some paprika to spice the steak but you can flavour the steak paste as you wish: hot pepper, curry powder, thyme, etc.

Very useful: you can easily freeze these steaks. Wrap them raw into some cling film and when you need, you can cook the frozen steaks as if you just made them.

What I like with this vegetarian steak paste, it’s the different kinds of dishes you can prepare!

I would suggest you to accompany this steak with some broccolis mixed with a cooked tomato sauce.

Because the paste is malleable, you can also use it into small casserole dish. In that case, you could stack layers of the paste and other ingredients (vegetables, meat, fish).

Let’s be creative!

Rose.

Version française disponible ici !