May 24, 2010

Healthy Burger with Homemade Veggie Patty

Being a vegetarian in the US is like being a little fish in a zoo instead of an aquarium. Yes, you do get a good box to live in. Yes, you do get some fish food thrown at you. But you also see all the big meats thrown at the other animals all around you and sometime that's not what you want to look at.

Sorry, that was just a pathetic example. This is why I should never plan to become a writer. I'll just stick to my blog.

Anyways, in the majority of the restaurants here in the US, there are just a very few dishes on the menu that are made vegetarian. And fast food places especially the burger ones are even more so. Sometimes I hear other moms telling me that eating Mc Donalds on a regular basis really is not so healthy (Newsflash). And I don't even bother to tell them that I probably have taken my daughter twice in her life (that would be the last 5 yrs and a few months) to McD's and on those occasions, I got her some chocolate milk and maybe a cookie (those are good indeed).  And I got myself maybe a medium order of fries. Don't judge me now. At least I'm honest here.

We all do love the veggie patty at Subway's, the veggie burger at Counter's and a couple of other places that offer veggie burgers. But I want more. I need more. I'm needy.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. Dangerous yes, but healthy, protein packed and filling too. Wanna see?

So, here are some moong sprouts sprouted in my own kitchen. This will be the main ingredient in today's burger recipe.


Chop all the other vegetables that you'd like to add to your burger. About 1/2 cup of each veggie to about 2 cups of moong sprouts would be a good propotion. Chop all the veggies into small pieces.

I used -
Onions, Bell Peppers, Carrots, Green Beans, 1 Potato and Corn - fresh or frozen. I used frozen corn - all the other veggies were fresh cut.
Ginger (1 inch piece) and Green chillies (about 3-4) - chopped fine


In a wide pan, add a tsp of oil. Add some cumin seeds and then add the chopped ginger and green chilli. Fry for a couple of mins.


Then, add the onions and bell peppers. Fry for a min. Don't overcook any veggies - these will be pattied up together and will soak in the sun inside the oven too.


Then add all the other chopped veggies and the moong sprouts.


Here's the fun part - I got a little creative here while adding the masalas. I added some garam masala and pav bhaji masala here and then about a tsp of sambar powder. LOL..that's the extent of my creativity. Add some salt to taste. Once the masalas are mixed together well, switch off and set the pan aside on the counter.


When the veggies have cooled down a little bit, move them to the food processor.


Pulse a few times until the veggies are mashed up a bit.


Move to a mixing bowl and then add some bread crumbs to the veggies. I toasted a couple of whole wheat bread slices and then crushed them into crumbs. Mix well and then take medium ball size of the veggie mix and roll into a ball and then flatten it.


Roast about 1 cup of sesame seeds to a light brown and place the seeds on a flat plate. Once you roll and flatten out the patty, just press it gently into the sesame seeds so that the patties get a nice coating of the seeds. Set them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Once all the patties are ready, freeze these for about 4-5 hours. That will help the patty set well. You could also just skip the whole freezing part and bake them immediately. In case you have made a lot of patties, you can freeze them to reuse later.


Then, bake them in a pre heated oven at 375 F for about 15-20 mins or until you see the seeds get a little bit more browner. And from the picture below you can see that I forgot to remove the parchment paper while baking. As soon as I put the pan in and took the picutures, I remembered - and then removed the baking sheet out and then transferred them to another sheet without the parchment paper. If not completely covered, the parchment paper will start heating up in the oven and you'll see white smoke. Not good for anything. So, please make sure you don't bake with the parchment paper.

You could also drizzle a few drops of oil directly on top of the patty if you want it a little bit more moist. They are soft even without the oil. So if you're feeling indulgent, add that oil. If its just the beginning of your big partying weekend, please skip that and go all out healthy.


Here they are - all done. You can't really see - but these are cooked good well. And they smell good too. And taste great even though its all healthy stuff! And can you believe that there are no added fats, butters or oils to the recipe - the entire batch uses probably about 1-2 tsp of oil. Now, that's calorie cutting I always welcome!


I made a quick burger with some lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Apply a thin coating of mayo if you like - I buy the fat free mayo and it works great.

I served my healthy home made veggie burger with baked sweet potato fries and some homemade mango salsa. Will blog about that mango salsa soon - you've all got to try it!


Now that's some fish food I'd like to eat in my own aquarium! What say you?


Enjoy. Peace out!

31 comments:

  1. Bookmarked it and am surely making them. They are simply delicious :)

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  2. I cannot agree more with you on getting together all OC/SBC/LAC food bloggers together. You have given me a wonderful idea. Please feel free to email me (not through blog comment, but email), it is on my event details and we can be the organizers :)

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  3. Superb - awesome! looks great! make some for me this weekend.

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  4. Awesome patty with moong.. really delicious.. I am bookmarking it ..

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  5. Love the idea of sprouts and sesame seeds in the burger. I make a similar version. I also add cooked dal which helps the patties hold together :)

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  6. That is so much healthier and tastes so much better! I'm glad somebody let you in on the big secret of how unhealthy McDonald's is, lol. My daughter always asks to go (cuz you know, AAAALLL her friends mom's take them!) and when I take her, she always gets sick! I'd much rather have this for dinner :)

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  7. Awesome, for a change a veggie burger looks juicy!!!

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  8. Man I just finished my sprouts...hmm if only I knew...anyways will sprout again...this looks just yum....nice recipe ...and as always wonderful pics

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  9. I am soo gonna make this.. me too a vegetarian and have the same probs as you mentioned.. funny we found veggie pattis only in the Mcds in Europe and in NYC.. everywhere else I stick to their fries and sometimes parafaits and now their frappes. Hey btw, there are some fabulous frozen Indian masala burgers in Trader Joes. It is like aaloo tikkis, and really yumm.. but now I'm gonna try the moong one.. thanks so much.

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  10. Hi Mrignayani,
    Thnks for presenting in a clear cut manner with beautifully captured photos.....This looks inviting.....
    Will try it soon....
    Drop in sometime

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  11. Woooow Protein packed pattice dear that tooo in baked way hmm simply superb one.

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  12. Well what do you know... I had the moong sprouts sitting on my counter top and the family looked this morning with "again moong sprouts in lemon juice" faces!! Lo and behold, comes your blog with this patty...now dont ask me what I am doing on your blog at breakfast time but this hi protein vegetarian recipe is their lunch today!! THANK YOU!

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  13. Looks delish!! On my to-do list for thursday, I gotta make the sprouts you see! :)

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  14. Wow!!! This is such a healthy and delicious Burger :) Bookmarked it!

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  15. This seems really good, thanks!

    I'm going to raid the kitchen for a midnight snack now, Ive got my appetite all worked up just looking at these snaps!

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  16. no i am not going any restaurant coming to ur place.wow what a delicious combo ..the veggie burger patties no where we can find such a delicious and healthy patties..really iked this one..

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  17. You are JUST AWESOME!!!

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  18. Beautiful patties, loved the sesame sprinkles on top :-)

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  19. good and easy too..love the presentation..

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  20. the patties luks crunchy and delicious...i accept the phrase "fish in a zoo" :-)..

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  21. Anu I tried the mazedaar arbi fry which tasted good with dash of lemon juice and capsicum. We enjoyed it as well. I really loved the idea of adding both lemon and capsicum which gave wonderful taste to arbi roast. Thanks anu...

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  22. I just made it over the week-end. It came out so good.
    I love it the way you present the recipes.

    I love it.

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  23. Awesome!! I'll give it a try soon!

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  24. Wow...you really added just one spoon oil for this much burger. It is really healthy. Thank for posting a healthy dish.

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  25. Hi.. I tried this yesterday and it turned out to b a BIG hit!! Thanks so much for the great recipe..:) Also, I added some fresh mint leaves towards the last stage of sauteing the veggies. It definitely added a refreshing kick.

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  26. OMG!!!! i never even realised that you are pure vegetarian until i saw your post on veggi burger. I cant live without my chicken and fish but your blog is so refreshingly amazing that it dint hit me that i saw no non veg dishes. Bravo!!! i just love your blog..nice wholesome homecooked dishes, presented so creativly.love the way u write. a big fan now!! love it!!!

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  27. Made this last evening for dinner and the whole family enjoyed it. Thanks for the healthy recipe.

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  28. Hi Anu,

    We made this today for dinner and I finally found my Veggie Patty !! TH loves it and I love it... SO YUMMM !

    Thanks for a great recipe.

    Mala

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  29. Fortunately, there are countless varieties that we can come up with and your lentils version is indeed something worth trying out! Serving burgers with sweet potatoes is a perfect combination! You can prepare this meal for game or movie night when you invite your friends over!

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  30. Oh my gosh! These were SO good anu! Made them last night and we loved it. I wish you would come up with more innovative recipes. Your Kadai Paneer is already a staple at my house!

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