I used to love the Gardenburger Black Bean Chipotle Burgers, before they changed the formula. They used to be labeled gluten free. No longer. Boo.
Now the only choices for gluten free veggie burgers are Sunshine Burgers,which are okay, and Amy’s Bistro Burgers, which are pretty good. Or you can make your own.
I have only made homemade veggie burgers once or twice before and I can’t remember the results being that great as they didn’t become part of our normal repertoire. But I have seen a lot of veggie burger recipes floating around the blogosphere these days. And recently, over at Gluten Free Homemaker, Linda posted a round-up of burgers on Gluten Free Wednesdays, some of which were vegetarian. So it had me thinking and looking around for some inspiration.
This is what I came up with. And yes, this is a keeper.
Sweet Potato, Quinoa and Black Bean Burgers
Inspired by Cupcake Punk and Fat Free Vegan
Makes about 12 medium-sized burgers
1 – 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 large sweet potatoes, about 2-1/2 cups, cooked and mashed *
1 -1/2 cups quinoa, cooked and cooled *
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup bread crumbs, gluten free
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 tsp chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, gluten free *
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Mash up about half of the black beans in a bowl. Add the other ingredients and mix up well. Form into patties and pan-fry in some oil until browned on both sides. Serve on buns with all the fixings, if you desire. (Canyon Bakehouse now has gluten free hamburger buns and I hear they are pretty tasty! I haven’t tried them yet.)
We ate our burgers bun-less with some baby artichokes (yes, an unusual combination). Later that week I ate the leftovers bun-less with some barbecue sauce and pickles and that was great too. The barbecue sauce was a nice companion to the sweetness of the potato.
I also experimented with the cooking method. Half of the burgers I pan-fried in a little bit of oil. The other half I cooked on my little-used George Foreman grill. We preferred the pan-fried ones as they held together better and they browned slightly. It seemed like the grill didn’t cook them much at all. In the picture above, the burger on the right was done on the grill (you can still see the grill marks) and the burger on the left was pan-fried.
Notes:
* I microwaved two large sweet potatoes and then split them open and scooped out the inside and mashed it up.
* You could saute the onions and garlic if you desire but I liked the slight crunchiness of the raw onion in the burgers.
* I used leftover quinoa, so I measured 1-1/2 of that after cooking. I am not sure how much you would need to cook in order to end up with 1-1/2 cups of cooked quinoa.
* Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are not always gluten free, some have flour added. Double-check. Open the can, dump it all the food processor and whirl it until it is evenly blended and the whole peppers are all blended. Then take out what you need and freeze the rest. I never use a full can all at once and typically just use a teaspoon or so here or there. I keep it in a freezer container and scoop out just what I need.
* I think I might add more chipotle next time.
Beyond Rice and Tofu 