This recipe from Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking sounded pretty interesting — it’s not your Garden(burger) variety veggie patty. With this recipe, the veggie patty is the bun, so you don’t end up with such a dry burger. You can then fill it with whatever strikes your fancy: we used avocado, sauteed shrooms, tomato, and sprouts.

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Chris says:

Ha, these are awesome! It’s like an inside-out burger.

Lisa says:

I know — not only do they taste delicious, they look pretty fancy. We should make them for our next party.

Chris says:

I could totally see that — have a tray filled with these guys already assembled. Yum.

Lisa says:

I bet these would be good with guacamole…

Chris says:

That holds true with most things, IMHO.

Lisa says:

…or crispy shallots.

Chris says:

Did you bring that up just because I burned that one batch?

Lisa says:

Hmmmm… now why would I do that? Just saying they’d probably be so delicious on these mini-burgers… mmmm, so goood….!

Chris says:

O burnt shallots! Why must ye torment me so, cruel devils!?

Lisa says:

Whoa. What was that?

Chris says:

Not sure.  I just really want those on my burger now.

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Ultimate Veggie Mini-Burgers
2 1/2 cups canned garbanzos, drained and rinsed (a little less than 2 15-oz cans)
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 onion, chopped
zest of one large lemon
1 cup alfalfa sprouts, chopped
1 cup toasted bread crumbs
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the garbanzos, eggs, and salt in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a thick, slightly chunky hummous. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the cilantro, onion, zest, and sprouts. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. Form into twelve 1 1/2″-thick patties. (Remember, these are mini-burgers, so they’re not very wide). If the batter seems too moist to form into patties, add more bread crumbs a bit at a time to firm it up. Or, if too dry, add a bit of water to moisten the batter.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium low, add 4 patties, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. Raise the heat if after 10 minutes there is no browning. Flip the patties and cook the second side for 7 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the skillet and cool on a wire rack while you cook the remaining patties. Cut each patty in half — like a bun! — fill with your favorite treats, and eat!

Makes ~12 mini-burgers
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Update: As suggested by one commenter, I’m submitting these little guys to Equal Opportunity Kitchen’s Tried, Tested and True 3: Wedding Edition .
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