Sam is the vegetarian in the family but it is Speedy and myself who ate these vegan mushroom burgers. We had so many vegetarian ingredients in the fridge after Sam had gone back to the condo, the ingredients won’t last until next weekend, so I started cooking them.
The burgers are made with chopped oyster mushrooms, onion, garlic, carrot and bell pepper. And, for the binder, panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and an egg substitute that I recently discovered. See, when I was reading up about chickpeas, I came across something about making a paste with equal parts of chickpea flour and water, and using it as a substitute for eggs in Indian cooking. Of course, I wanted to try it. And I did.
Vegan mushroom burgers
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
15 mins
These vegan mushroom burgers are really tasty. It’s best not to chop the mushrooms and vegetables too finely to enjoy good texture. One caveat, though. The inside of the burgers will still be soft. So, it’s best to make really thin patties so that, with both sides of the burgers well browned and crisp, the soft part becomes negligible.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 cup oyster mushrooms chopped
- 2 tablespoons bell peppers chopped
- 2 tablespoons carrot chopped
- 2 tablespoons onion chopped
- vegetable cooking oil for frying
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1/3 cup panko (use less if using ordinary bread crumbs)
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons chickpea flour
Instructions
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Rinse the mushrooms and all the vegetables then pat dry before chopping.
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You can use a chopper or do everything by hand. You can chop as finely as you can or leave everything a bit coarse so you’ll have more texture in your burgers.
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Place the chopped mushrooms, bell peppers, carrot, onion, garlic and panko in a mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
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Mix the chickpea flour with 2 tbsps. of water to make a paste. Stir into the vegetables and mushrooms then season the mixture with salt and pepper.
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Divide the mixture into two portions. Form each portion into a patty. Keep the patties thin. You’ll get more crunch out of your burgers that way.
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Coat the bottom of the frying pan with vegetable cooking oil. Coat. Generously. Not brush but coat. You need the oil to make sure that the burgers will form a crust on the outside. If you have a large frying pan, you can cook the patties at the same time. Otherwise, cook them one by one.
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Fry the patties over medium heat until nicely browned underneath. Then, flip carefully to brown the other side. You may want to drizzle another tablespoonful of oil into the pan after flipping so that the top will get enough oil to allow it to brown well too. Important: Do not flip until the underside is well-browned because without the browned and firm crust, the patties are really soft and if flipped too early they will break apart.
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Brush your bread with whatever spread you like. I used hummus with tahini.
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Lay some greens on the bread then position the patty. Cover with another piece of bread. And enjoy.
