The best veggie burger EVER!

Merry getting-ready-for Christmas!!! This household is officially all decorated for our favorite season of the year! We have two trees since my father-in-law gave us his when he moved north, so we've got one set up in the living room and one in our bedroom. To celebrate, I want to share my newly discovered favorite vegetarian burger!

Here is Elliot having some quality Christmas tree time :)

I'm pretty picky about my veggie burgers. I don't like all-bean burgers (too mushy). I don't like chunks of vegetables sticking out of my burger either. I'm a big fan of Morningstar's chipotle veggie burger, but even those can start tasting too beany and earthy after a while. Mad Fox (of course) has awesome vegetarian options for me, including a black bean and bulgur burger. That was my favorite until...UNTIL...Hubby found a groupon for a burger place called BGR. I had heard of it, but we had yet to try it until now. We went to Tysons Corner a couple Saturday nights ago to use the groupon. I was excited to try a new burger. You never know when you're going to find a hidden goldmine. Boy, did I!

This burger's highlights included black beans, brown rice, sweet potato, oats, and molasses. This was one of the only burgers that had a char to it, which I love and rarely get with others. It was also hefty with a touch of sweetness. Not to mention I just adore brown rice in veggie burgers. This was not only delicious, but healthy! They topped it with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and mojo sauce (a bbq-like sauce). These were all of the toppings I would have asked for, on top of the cheese I requested. It helped that the fries accompanying  it were perfection. I don't eat french fries a lot anymore, but Hubby got regular fries (I got sweet potato) and let's just say Hubby pretty much swapped out our fries because I was head over heels in love with his. This burger rocked, and I can't wait to go back!



Of course I had to try and make this on my own. I found the alleged recipe from BGR online. Turns out, it's not entirely accurate as the BGR version has oats in it. I'm sure there are other ingredients missing or at least different than what I found because these didn't turn out quite right, but were still really good. It took me about six hours to cook and cool everything so it could be ready to eat by the time Hubby got home. Basically, you cook the rice and bake the sweet potato and leave them both to cool to room temperature. Then you throw everything together in a bowl and mix away!



Here came the inevitably difficult part I run into with every veggie burger I attempt. Binding them. I could have thrown in an egg, but I wanted them to taste like they did at the restaurant, so I didn't want to add anything outside of the recipe. I did add a TBS of flour into the mix to bind it a little because forming the patties was difficult. I googled veggie burgers' cooking tips, and it was highly recommended to go along with the recipe and allow the binding to occur post-baking because cooling will bind the ingredients. So I did just that. I molded the patties as best I could and threw them into the oven to brown up before frying. You also have the option of freezing the patties once done baking so you can save them for up to six months.




The sad news is the frying didn't work. The patties completely fell apart. Ken suggested throwing them in the food processor to make the ingredients smaller, allowing them to really mix together. I did that and threw one egg in to help. My sister-in-law is visiting us for the week, so I decided to take the patties I froze after processing and try them out for dinner on Monday night. The good news is they were very successful! While still a tad loose, most veggie patties are. I'll experiment with other binders the next time I make these, but Hubby and my sister-in-law said they were really good!

MAKE AHEAD: The baked patties can be wrapped in plastic wrap, sealed in plastic freezer bags and refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to six months. Thaw them thoroughly before pan-frying. The sweet potato can be roasted and the brown rice and black beans cooked and refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to six months.

12 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 small (6 ounces) sweet potato
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 cup cooked black beans, homemade or no-salt-added canned, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce of your choice, plus more for glazing if desired
• 2 tablespoons honey
• One 14-ounce package sausage-style soy protein, such as Gimme Lean beef-style
• Kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 12 hamburger buns
• Condiments and accompaniments of your choice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Use a fork or sharp knife to prick the potato in several places. Place it on a piece of aluminum foil and bake until the potato is tender and can be easily squeezed, 40 to 60 minutes. (Alternatively, to speed up the process, the pricked potato can be microwaved on HIGH for 1 minute, then transferred to the oven and baked until tender, 20 to 35 minutes.) Let the potato cool, then squeeze out the flesh into a large bowl and discard the skin.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Add the brown rice, black beans, molasses, barbecue sauce and honey to the bowl, and stir to thoroughly combine. Pull off small pieces of the soy protein, add it to the bowl and mash it up as you mix it in. Taste, and add salt if needed.

Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Form the vegetable mixture into 12 patties, about 5 inches across and 1/2 inch thick, placing them on the baking sheets.

Bake the patties until they feel firm to the touch and are just barely browning on the edges, about 25 minutes. Let them cool to room temperature.

Pour the vegetable oil into a large skillet. When the oil starts to shimmer, carefully add as many patties as you intend to eat, working in batches if necessary and being careful not to overcrowd them. Fry them until crisp and browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer them to a cooling rack set over a plate, and blot them dry on top with paper towels.

Brush with more barbecue sauce before serving, if desired. Serve them on the buns with your favorite condiments and accompaniments.

Recipe Source:

Adapted by Joe Yonan from a recipe by Mark Bucher.