Tuesday's Veggie Burger Adventure!!!

I felt that today was the perfect day to try out a couple more recipes that I found online! Their pictures are delectable and I'm sooo hoping they're as delish as they look :)  They offer 8 different bean burger recipes and I'm chomping at the bit to get started.  Here goes!!...

Nice, simple ingredients!

Okay, so I ended up making the Black Bean Oat Burgers and a variation of the Curry-Spiced Veggie Burgers.  You can find them here:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/veggie-burger-recipes#

The Black Bean Poo

The Black Bean recipe was good, but needs to be jazzed up... a little bland for my taste.  The mixture turned out a bit on the wet side and I couldn't really form a patty, so I added another 1/4 cup of oats, pulsed, and tried again.  I couldn't stop giggling because it looked like I had made a lovely batch of poo, lol.  No, seriously.  It looked like poo.

Black Bean Oat Burger!

I cooked up one burger and had it for lunch on a big ol' deli style bun, so it would look nice in the photo for you all.  Oh the things I do for you :)  I will definitely make this again!  Simple ingredients, simple cooking method, healthy lunch.  Perfect!  Next time I think I'll add some minced jalapeño, for a little WOW factor :)

Curry-Spiced Burgers!  YUM!

The Curry-Spiced burger was a different beast all together, lol. I'm unsure if I messed up along the way or if the recipe is just not user friendly.  The poo came out too wet again, but there wasn't really a binding agent ingredient in this recipe, so I didn't have anything I could add more of, and any decent 'burger-type thickness' was impossible with this batch.  It ended up cooking like a potato pancake instead of a burger, but HOLY CRAP (or poo) it was delicious!  

I didn't have all of the ingredients that it called for (whoops!), so I improvised.  YAY ME!!  Instead of curry, fennel, & coriander, I just used garam masala powder.  Also, I didn't have any cilantro, so I just left it out.  What a great flavor these little suckers have!!  I'm going to work on making a 'meatier' mix, but even if I don't figure it out, I may just use this recipe as a burrito filler... YUM RIGHT?!?!?!!  Side note: this was not near as simple as the Black Bean Oat Burger, but way more tasty.

Onion, shroom, carrot love!

So, my mistakes:
* I think, in both recipes, I mixed the ingredients in the food processor for too long (it made the poo concoction too wet), and in the black bean one having added the extra oats at the end caused me to pulse them into the mix, hence the over processing of the poo. Otherwise, all was good.

 
My tips for both recipes:

* Let the mixture sit and 'gel' for a few minutes before handling it.
* Don't actually make a patty, but roll it into a ball first, drop it in the pan (literally, so it flattens out a bit), and press & form it with your hand.  It will not have the same texture as ground beef, and will seem 'loose' to work with.  You've been warned.
* They only make 4 - 5 patties... the recipes say 6.  They would be miserably teeny of you tried to squeeze 6 out of these recipes!
* Have a hot pan when you start.  Don't go lower than medium heat or it won't get a nice crispy edge to it, and it'll stick to the pan.
* And lastly, don't mess around with them while they're cooking!!  They'll need every bit of the 4 minutes on each side to firm up, so you can flip them.  If you mess with them, they crack & split apart and all hell breaks loose.

The next ones I'll be trying my hand at are the Southwest Black Bean Burgers and the Black Bean Burger (last recipe given).  Wish me luck!!!

Peas out, my peeps :)