Vegetarian Burgers {some thoughts and what I've learned so far}

Recently, on another of our weekly cooking get together, we dived head first into the vegetarian burger ocean. Who knows why I hadn't done it before but I think there is some really really dim memory of mine where I had once tried my hand on vegetarian burgers (all the way back when I still lived together with my mum) and it had ended in a disaster....well, a veggie-something-stiff-fry-pan-dish disaster. So after that, I kind of never ventured back into that direction.
Turns out, four to five years later, vegetarian burgers are not only delicious!! but super easy to make!!!

The first time we made them we used this recipe (smokey sweet potatoes with roasted garlic cream and avocado) tweaking a bit, as usual, because we were either too lazy from some things or didn't have other things on hand. They turned out really great:

And if you start reading through all the 1.000 recipes that are out there, you notice pretty much, it just boils down to this:

--> You get a base, which is either white beans, beans in general, chick peas, lentils, sweet potatoes or potatoes. (you're base can also totally mix and match any of them together). You have something to keep it all together, normally 1 or 2 eggs and a bit of flour or oats (or both). Some other additions, such as onions, garlic, spinach, zucchini (can also be used as a bade, apparently), egg plants....whatever comes to your mind and spices to give it that special something.
Pile on a bun with any sauce and further veggies and you're done! (My kind of magic!!)

So, the next time I was at home, all by myself, and craving some real food. I threw together:

• ~1/3 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 sweet potato (5 minutes microwave-cooked)
• ~2 Tblsp whole wheat flour
• 1 egg
• arugula sala (about a hand full)
• salt, pepper, a bit of garam masala and a note of curry

Mixed all of it together in a bowl and fried the patties in some olive oil in a pan.

I had them as a normal burger the first night, but they were also great on salad the next night.
Have fun getting creative ;)

I can't help myself...but isn't it pretty?! Vegetarian brugers are amazing! ♥

...though, now while giving this whole burger conversation a second thought, somewhere in the depth of my growing cook book should be a recipe hidden, written by my aunt (who cooks amazingly!!!) about white bean burger. They. were. amazing. My I should venture into that direction in the future, try to dig it out and share it here?!
We will see what my cook book reveals. Stay tuned and have a beautiful weekend!!