I was never a burger person but lately I have been eating out or ordering from outside a lot and man, I’ve been loving, craving and eating the hell out of so many burgers. But, the sad aspect of life is that with everything so good, comes with a catch and that catch my friends is a big one. Burgers are generally unhealthy and especially if you start eating them a lot. So, I decided to make a homemade burger which is totally customized and made according to my taste, healthier and more wholesome, less processed.

This Ultimate Homemade Veggie Burger’s main flavour source is the patty. I gave special attention and put in a lot of efforts to create this patty recipe which is so rich in different layers of flavour and varied nutrient qualities. It contains black chickpeas (chana), quinoa, sweet corn, peas (matar), flaxseeds and a lot of herbs and spices. The burger as a whole is deliciously juicy and treats you with a burst of aroma and flavour in your mouth.

Serves 1 person

Cooking time 30 minutes

Preparation time Overnight to soak Black Chickpeas (Chana) and Quinoa

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INGREDIENTS

For the burger patty

• ¹⁄2 cup of dried black chickpea or chana yields 1 cup boiled or cooked black chickpea or chana
• ¹⁄2 cup cooked or boiled quinoa*
• ¹⁄3 cup cooked or boiled sweet corn kernels or makki
• ¹⁄4 cup cooked or boiled peas or matar
• 1 tbsp flaxseeds powder (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• ¹⁄4 tsp black pepper powder
• ¹⁄2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp dry mix herbs like oregano, thyme, basil (optional)
• 2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
• Olive oil (as required) for shallow frying
• A handful of coriander leaves
• 1-inch ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 litre of water

For the burger

• 1 burger bun (In this recipe whole wheat buns are used)
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 spinach or palak leaves
• 1 medium-sized tomato, cut into round slices
• 1 medium-sized onion, cut into round slices (mildly caramelised)
• 2 cheese slices

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INSTRUCTIONS

Prepping the burger patty

1. Start by soaking ¹⁄2 cup of black chickpeas (chana) in 2-3 cups of water and ¹⁄4 cup quinoa overnight in 1 cup of water or for about 10 hours.
2. After the soaking is done completely, cook or boil black chickpeas (chana) until they are completely cooked and soft. Once they are cooked, blend them in a mixer for a couple of seconds and make a paste.
3. In a seperate pan, cook quinoa in 1¹⁄2 cups of water on low heat for 45 minutes until it is completely soft, dry and cooked.
4. Also, cook or boil sweet corn and then grind it to make a paste. Leave some whole sweet corn kernels as it is to mix in later.
5. Boil or cook peas (matar) until they are soft.
6. If you don’t have flaxseed powder, toast them lightly in a pan and once they cool down, grind them to make a powder. This ingredient is optional.
7. In a mixing bowl, along with all these ingredients that are prepared till now, add salt, pepper, herbs, onion, ginger, coriander, lemon, cornflour and mix everything well to make a nice patty dough as shown in picture 2.
8. Make a big, fat patty which is also flat from sides as shown in picture 3.
9. Cover it in bread crumbs and make sure the crumbs completely sticks to the surface of the patty.
10. In a pan on low to medium heat, drizzle some olive oil and shallow fry till both sides are brown and crisp.

For the burger

1. Cut a burger bun from the middle into two slices.
2. Grease a flat pan with some olive oil and toast both slices of bun on low heat till light brown. (make sure you don’t burn them.)
3. On the lower bun, spread tomato ketchup put spinach leaves, then slices tomatoes, then a slice of cheese.
4. On top of the cheese, put the cooked patty, caramelised onions, cheese slice, coriander leaves, tomato ketchup.
5. Put the other slice of the bun on the top and tada! your homemade burger is ready.

RECIPE NOTES

1. Please add salt, pepper in the patty dough according to your taste.
2. Make sure before you grind and mix all patty ingredients that they are completely dry. If you feel that your patty is not holding together, add more cornflour. 
3. If Quinoa is not available, use cooked brown rice as a replacement. Quinoa is easily available on Amazon.
4. You can also spread mustard sauce, mayonnaise or any other chutney or sauce lying around in your house to the burger to enhance its flavour.
5. You can make your own breadcrumbs at home by toasting the bread from both sides completely on low heat, let it cool and then grinding the hard parts of the bread slice in a mixer. (Make sure you don’t burn the bread.)