Perfect veggie burgers

This recipe is from the Oh She Glows blog site. I've made a few homemade veggie burgers but this one really is pretty perfect. It also isn't too wheaty tasting and it has a nice balance of beans, veggies, seeds, nuts and grains. I got 9 burgers out of the recipe and froze most of them to have later for lunches. I baked them in the afternoon and then re-heated them by pan-frying before dinner tonight. I made homemade whole wheat burger buns to go along with- so worth it, trust me. You know exactly what ingredients are in the bread and no ingredients you can't pronounce. Here is a link to the original recipe. We also served ours with some kale chips. Angela's picture was too inspiring and I had to have that for dinner tonight! We did and will enjoy some leftovers for lunch tomorrow:)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
flax eggs, 2 1/2 Tbs ground flax + 1/2 cup warm water, mixed in bowl
1 cup oats, processed into flour
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (I used the ends of leftover bread, stuck in the toaster)
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and roughly pureed or mashed
heaping 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (or fresh herb of choice)
1/3 cup almonds, chopped (toasted if preferred)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (toasted if preferred)
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs Tamari (soy sauce- we used Bragg's liquid amines)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
kosher salt and pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp salt)

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (if baking). In a large skillet, sauté onions and garlic in 1/2 Tbs oil. Mix your flax egg together in a small bowl and set aside for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Place all ingredients (except spices and salt) into a large mixing bowl and stir very well. Now, add seasonings and salt to taste.

Toasting the bread to then process into breadcrumbs.

Processing the almonds a bit to chop them up.

Processing the oats into oat flour. Definitely worth purchasing a mini food processor!

Mashing the black beans!

Grating the carrots!

The dough before mixing all the ingredients together.

The dough mixed together, with the spices on top, before mixing these into it.

3. With slightly wet hands, shape dough into patties. Pack dough tightly, as this will help it stick together. I ended up with 9 patties but the original recipe said it made 8- I could have made mine bigger.

4. Cooking methods: You can fry the burgers in a bit of oil on a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side. If baking in the oven, bake for 25-40 minutes (15-17 minutes on each side) at 350ºF, until golden and crisp. For the grill, pre-bake the burgers for about 15 minutes in oven before placing on a pre-heated grill until golden and crisp on each side.

For toppings we used BBQ sauce, mustard, sliced avocados, sliced tomatoes and red leaf lettuce. They were absolutely delicious and a perfect Monday night dinner.

Toppings!

DELICIOUS!!!