Are you scratching your head wondering how it’s July like I am? I say this every single year and I never seem to figure it out. If you do, let me know.
My Canada Day long weekend was a nice mix of work and play! I spent much of the weekend recipe testing, as I tend to do these days. I nailed down 3 more recipes for the book, which I think puts me just shy of the half way mark – as far as recipes go at least. Other weekend activities included celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday, hiking, running, cleaning/laundry, groceries, and enjoying Canada Day fireworks.
Here are some fav pictures from hiking this weekend.
(Hiking with Ange!)
And a friend in the water…
We also saw 3 snakes in the span of 2 days of hiking. They were just tiny gardener garter snakes, but in my mind they might as well have been boa constrictors! Not surprisingly, I didn’t get any pics because I was too busy pushing Eric into the snakes so I could save myself from imminent death. I’m not proud.
Something I am proud of? These recipes I whipped up for dinner this weekend.
Click the link below for the step-by-step photos and the recipes!
While it’s been a long time since I’ve featured a new veggie burger on the blog (see: our perfect veggie burger from July 13, 2011), I’ve been testing them behind-the-scenes over the past year and I’ve picked up some tricks along the way. These burgers pack in 6 colourful vegetables, whole grain brown rice, protein-filled chickpeas, ground flax, seeds, and some spices to round it all out. The ingredient list is impressive and the taste is even better.
I added my favourite BBQ sauce- Stubb’s – to give the burgers a lil somethin’-somethin’. The “batter” is downright delicious before it’s even cooked. If you don’t want to make patties out of this I’m sure you could just sauté it and stuff it in a burrito. Or scramble it with potato for a breakfast hash…now that would be great.
When making veggie burgers in the past, I’ve often used my food processor. While it’s quick, I tend to over-process the ingredients leaving the burgers without much texture (aka: mushy). This time, I decided to chop & mash everything by hand (and give my arms a good workout while I was at it!). They turned out exactly as I hoped.
I also cooked the chickpeas from scratch because I digest them much better when soaked overnight in water and cooked with a piece of kombu. If you are short on time you can also use the quick-soak method or simply use canned chickpeas. I’ll explain the options more in the directions below.
The trick when making everything by hand is to chop the veggies very small and mash the beans and brown rice until it’s nice and sticky. If you leave the veggies and beans too large the patties won’t stick together, so make sure you mash it up while leaving some chunks for texture.
Brown rice is my preferred grain of choice in veggie burgers because of its magical binding powers. It does a great job holding it all together; I’ve found it can work even better than flax eggs.
It should look similar to this batter below. It’s sticky, but still has a chunky texture. I think I ate a whole patty’s worth straight from the bowl…!
When you shape the patties, really pack the dough in tightly to help it stick. If the patties aren’t holding together you probably need to mash it up more. You could also try adding more breadcrumbs as it will help bind things.
These veggie burgers held together great on the skillet. No cracking at all. I haven’t tried them on the BBQ, but I assume they would hold up if handled carefully.
Spicy BBQ Chickpea Burgers
Yield
7 to 8 patties
Soak time
8 hours
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Vegan veggie burgers are a sensitive bunch, so take caution if adapting this recipe. If you enjoy Our Perfect Veggie Burger recipe, you should also love of this one. This burger is less dry than the former with more moisture overall. As I mentioned above, you can probably use a food processor to speed things up, just be careful not to over-process the ingredients as the vegetables can release a lot of water when processed.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry/uncooked chickpeas (or 2 & 1/4 cups cooked chickpeas) + kombu (optional)
- 1/2 cup dry brown rice (or 1 & 1/4 cup cooked rice)
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
- 1 tbsp pepita seeds, toasted
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup diced red pepper
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- 1 small carrot, grated
- 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
- 3 tbsp BBQ sauce
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, or more as needed (use GF breadcrumbs if necessary)
- 2-3 tbsp ground flax
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- Fine grain sea salt, to taste (I used 1 tsp + Herbamare)
Directions
- Methods to prepare chickpeas: 1) Soak dry chickpeas overnight, or for at least 8 hours, in a large bowl filled with water. When ready, drain and rinse the chickpeas. Place in a medium-sized pot with 3 cups of fresh water. Cover with lid and bring to a boil. Remove lid and place a small piece (~1” x 2”) of kombu (optional) into the pot with 1/8th tsp salt. Cover again and simmer on low-medium for about 50 minutes, watching carefully after about 35-40. When cooked, chickpeas will be tender and some may have split open. Drain and rinse. Discard kombu. 2) Alternatively, you can use canned chickpeas or 3) the quick-soak method: Add 3 cups water and 1 cup dry chickpeas into a pot. Cover, bring to a boil, and immediately turn heat off. Keep covered and let sit for 1 hour. After 1 hour, drain and rinse chickpeas. Add into rinsed pot with 3 cups fresh water. Cook the same as method 1) above.
- To cook rice: In a strainer, rinse the rice. Add 1/2 cup dry rice into a pot with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid, and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, watching closely and giving it a stir after 20. Add a touch more water if necessary.
- Toast seeds: Preheat oven to 300°F. Toast sunflower and pepita seeds for about 12 minutes, or until lightly golden in colour. Set aside.
- Chop vegetables. Finely chop the garlic, peppers, onion, and parsley. Grate carrot. Stir in half the salt. Set aside.
- Mash chickpeas and rice: When chickpeas are ready, drain and rinse. Add the cooked chickpeas and rice into a large bowl. Make sure your rice is HOT as it helps it stick together and bind. Do not use cold rice. With a potato masher, mash very well, leaving some chunks for texture. You will need to use a lot of elbow grease to mash this up, but you want it really sticky so it’s worth it! You can also pulse in a food processor.
- Mix it all up: Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. With a wooden spoon, stir in the chopped vegetables into the mashed chickpea/rice mixture. Now stir in the seeds, BBQ sauce, breadcrumbs, and ground flax. Add the salt and red pepper flakes to taste.
- Shape patties & cook: Form 6-8 patties and pack dough together tightly. Spray the preheated skillet with oil. Cook the patties for about 4-5 minutes per side over medium-high heat (time will vary based on your temp). Burgers should be browned and firm when ready. You can also try grilling the patties (try pre-baking patties for 15 mins in the oven at 350°F before grilling).
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
To go with the burgers I also made these amaaaaazing crispy baked fries! I tested a few different methods and this one was by far the best.
Lightened Up Crispy Baked Fries
Yield: ~2 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes (0.5 kg/1.1 lb), sliced into wedges
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2-3/4 tsp fine grain kosher salt (I used 3/4 tsp), to taste
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (use oil safe for high heat such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and sesame)
- Herbamare, for seasoning
1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil.
2. Wash potatoes and pat dry. Slice potatoes lengthwise into quarters. Slice each quarter in half (or thirds if really large).
3. Grab a small kitchen garbage bag. Add cornstarch and salt inside the bag. Add potato wedges, twist top of bag to secure, and then shake the bag vigorously until the potatoes are coated with the cornstarch and salt mixture.
4. Leave potato wedges in the bag. Now drizzle in 1 tbsp oil, secure bag again, and shake until coated.
5. Place wedges on the baking sheet, with at least 3/4-inch between each one. Spacing them too close together may result in less crispy fries.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and flip each one. Bake for another 10-20 minutes more. We like ours quite brown and crispy so we baked them for about 32 minutes total. Fries will get soft with time so serve immediately.
aaaaand last but not least, a pretty Canada Day dessert. I figured it was better to give you a burger & fries recipe today than a Canada Day dessert recipe two days late.
Have a wonderful Fourth of July to my American readers! Anyone have any fun plans?
Made this today (without BBQ sauce) and it was friggin amazing!! I had quite some trouble cooking it and keeping it together unfortunately. I went from cooking it on the pan to baking it but it didnt work. Now that they’re cool they’re firm so maybe they’ll be ok once reheated but either way, I’m so satsfied!
The dessert looks amazing! Is it a brownie muffin scooped out & vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce & sprinkled coconut???? You mentioned in comments about saving for your book. I just flipped through the book but didn’t see – am I missing it? page # ?
Beautiful presentation! Where do you get all your pretty dishes? My husband (& me too!) thought the table it was on was gorgeous too!!!
Can the mixture/patties be frozen?does it thaw and cook well for future meals?
These burgers turned out great, I couldn’t wait until tonight to eat one, I used a food processors for chopping up everything into tiny pieces and for mashing up the chickpea/rice mixture. I started cooking the rice, and by the time that was ready, the rest of the ingredients were ready to mix. I made about 10 thinner patties, I like them on the thin side. I’m looking forward to making the potato wedges for supper tonight
Do you know how many calories are in a party?
Hi Angela! Thank you so much for a great recipe! I’ve been looking for veggie burger recipes that aren’t heavy on grains and that are flavorful, and these worked so well! I made a double batch and froze a bunch of them. They’ve been fantastic as a quick grab from the freezer when needed. I don’t defrost first, just take them straight from the freezer and reheat them in a 350 degree oven for about 35+ min, depending on how crispy I want the outside. They come out perfect!
Could these be baked? or do you have any other recipes for vegan burgers than can go into the oven?
Made these burgers along with the fries a few nights ago for my mom and stepdad.. so good! The patties didn’t quite hold up as well as I thought but that was expected. I made slider sizes after the first two normal patties were cracking at the edges.. helped a lot! I also used one serano pepper instead of the jalepeno, sooo yummy. The fries were literally the best I have ever had.. and I have had many fries, haha! Love this recipe and will be making it a lot this summer! Thanks Angela :)
PS so excited and happy for you and your family!! Please keep us posted.
I love this recipe! I added some black and white beans to the mix. So times I like pan frying it into a ground beef type texture and stuffing it into wraps. So tasty!
I just made this recipe top to bottom! Delicious!!!! I left out the pepper from the burgers but they really held together AND I have a ton leftover that I froze!
Made these fries tonight for dinner. They are so good, and a big hit. Will be making these again for sure. I made them with the arrowroot powder like in your cookbook. I am so glad I ordered your book, there are a few things I really want to try in it.
OH MY GOD! I just did them and they are SO delicious!!! What a great recipe! This is gonna be a regular one. Thank you so much for these amazing (vegan) recipes!
Just tried these burgers-delicious & a great blending of flavors! My husband loved them as well and he is quite a picky eater. I was skeptical about a veggie burger incorporating seeds but they added a nice crunch.
I cant wait to try this. Chickpeas are my fav, I promise. Ive been craving a homemade veggie burger, instead of hiting up my vegan spot daily.
Why discard the water the chickpeas were cooked in? Save it and use it as aquafaba for meringues instead of egg whites.
Tried these but they were really crumbly, fell apart when i cooked them )-: Tasted great though, chucked the crumbly disaster into a salad hehe
Made the fries tonight….major craving…but i skipped parchment paper thinking they would be EVEN crisper. …DO NOT SKIP THE PARCHMENT!! oh man. When the time came to flip they were stuck to the baking sheet. Very very stuck. Now….i was still committed to eating them…so I managed to scrape them off and somehow salvage a “french fry casserole” :) still delicious. Lol.
Your recipes seems very easy, as I have most of the ingredients you are using. I am diabetic and seriously looking for vegan recipes to help with controlling sugar levels, I will use Quinoa and Oats instead of flour, but I am sure I would love eating these a lot. Thank you so much for sharing .
Hi there! This fries are amazing, really really tasty. I used to use so much more oil when I made oven potatoes before…anyway, I just wanted to tell you something amazing I just discovered: I had some of this fries left over from yesterday and I just throw them (thus the old, cold, soft fries from yesterday) together with some vegtables and a bit olive oil, garlic and spices and throw them on the barbeque! They were really really good! So next time, if you have some left over, don’t throw them away :)!
Thanks for sharing, Sarah! Such a great idea. :)
I made this for Dinner this week and tonight, I had one with vegan mayo and ketchup with a sandwich thin. After one, I just had to have another. So good! I was able to get 6 1/2 patties out of the batter.
Excellent recipe! There are a lot of steps involved but worth it.
I love this recipe!!!! I put the whole mix into a lightly oiled baking dish press it frimly, glaze with more BBQ sauce mixed with hot sauce and bake for 45-55 mins at 375. Turns into the perfect ‘meatloaf’ for a Sunday night dinner. Thanks Angela!!
We just made a double recipe of the burgers and fries! Thank you for the pictures and step by step instructions!!!! Both were amazing! The double recipe made 19 burgers at 76 delicious calories each!
Don’t skip the parchment paper! Those potatoes were stuck like glue to the sheet. :(
Aw so sorry to hear that the potatoes stuck! That’s never fun. Hope you still enjoyed them. :)
This recipe looks delicious, and using canned chick peas appears to make it accessible even for the ‘cooking challenged’ like me.
For at least a couple of years I have been flirting with the idea of going vegan. Even as a man, I have never been a big meat eater, though when presented by a well prepared, succulent meat dish I’ve indulged as much as the best of ’em in the past.
But preparing raw meat on my own has always rather grossed me out, for reasons I’m sure need no explaining to those who frequent websites such as this one. In the last while the plight of farmed animals (particularly factory farmed) has really gotten to me, to the point I’ve been asking myself if I could eliminate their products from my diet.
Then the dread set in. Get rid of most, or all meat from my daily meals? Not easy, but that sounded do-able. But then I started thinking of all my favourites in other categories—cheese, eggs, milk, etcetera. Gads! What would I do without my open face broiled cheese on bread for a quick tea time / meal? Or milk! I *love milk, and it seems to go particularly well with certain foods for which I’ve never needed to try a substitute.
A life long favourite of mine has been a nice hamburger (on a bun). I could eat them at least twice a week and not get tired of them. Discovering the concept of veggie burgers has at least assuaged the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that has come from pondering how on earth I’m going to find ANYthing to eat besides salads if I do take the plunge and go full-on vegan. And this recipe sounds both tasty and not too hard to make.
In my introductory reading on veganism, I read somewhere that one thing people think they’d miss most when going vegan isn’t just the non-vegan foods, but rather their textures. I agree. If one can tuck into a nice veggie burger that has the ‘tooth’, or texture and density of one made from meat, or if one can make some other sort of meat-patty-esqe-like foods so that the supper plate has a more traditionally presented fare (potatoes, vegetable and ‘meat-like item’), then the whole veganizing of oneself might not be as impossible as it seems from the outside.
Wish me luck, and thanks for the nice recipe!
Hey there, I can’t thank you enough for leaving such an inspiring note! I think it’s an awesome goal, and simply taking steps in that direction makes a huge impact! I’d love to hear how the recipes go, and don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about them! Happy to help.
Hi Angela, wanted to make these for dinner but was missing some ingredients. I substituted white rice for brown, toasted pecans for the sunflower seeds and pepitas, and Patak’s curry paste for the BBQ sauce. They were different than yours, but still delicious!