Let me tell you the story behind this recipe for Gluten Free Veggie Burgers!
A few weeks ago, my husband Jack set out to create a delicious veggie burger recipe to share here on A Family Feast. We’ve mentioned before that our new year’s resolution was to eat more vegetables and the idea for creating a great veggie burger came up! I’ve eaten veggie burgers before and for the most part – they’ve just been ‘OK.’
So Jack’s goals for this gluten free veggie burgers recipe was to:
- Actually have vegetables in the veggie burger – and not just beans or lentils and other fillers
- Make them gluten free (our grandson eats a gluten free diet so we wanted him to be able to enjoy these veggie burgers too!)
- Use ingredients that are commonly found at any supermarket and, even better – most of the ingredients that our readers would likely have at home
- Actually taste good (even a non-vegetarian will love these)!
So little did we know, this would be a tall order to get just right! And for about a week and a half, our dinner every night was gluten free veggie burger recipe attempts one through ten! Our struggle was to find a gluten free binder that would hold the veggies and other ingredients together without making the burgers dry and tough! Thank you to our oldest daughter Courtney who suggested that we use Rice Chex cereal as the binder – it worked perfectly and gives the burgers great flavor too!
Gluten Free Veggie Burgers batch number 11 – this recipe we’re sharing here today – is a winner, and Jack did his famous ‘happy feet’ dance around the kitchen when he finally got it right! They are moist and flavorful – and chock full of real veggies like mushrooms, spinach, carrots, onions and peppers plus quinoa, hominy and – the infamous Rice Chex cereal!
One thing to note – this recipe is meant to make a bulk batch so you can freeze the patties and then cook them as needed. Feel free to cut the recipe back if you only want to make enough for one or two meals.
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Please don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients you see here in this recipe! As noted above, most of the ingredients used in this recipe are commonly-found ingredients and you might already have most of them in your kitchen. Also, you can use brown rice or farrow instead of quinoa but be advised that farrow has gluten.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup dry uncooked quinoa (buy the pre-rinsed if you can)
- 1 ½ cups vegetable stock
- 3 tablespoon vegetable shortening
- 4 ounces red onion, chopped
- 8 ounces red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 6 ounces baby spinach
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 12 ounces portabella or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup finely shredded carrots
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup gluten free rolled oats
- ½ cup flax seed or ground flax seed if available
- ½ cup dried mushrooms, preferably shiitake (increase rolled oats if you can’t get dry mushrooms)
- 6 ½ ounces original Rice Chex cereal (which will measure out to 2 cups once processed)
- 1 15-ounce can hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or half teaspoon dry thyme
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, or half teaspoon dry oregano
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 tablespoons Kitchen bouquet (found in the spice aisle at the supermarket. Note that this is a vegetable based product)
- Vegetable or olive oil to fry prepped burgers
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, heat vegetable stock until boiling. Add quinoa, cover and lower heat to low. Cook 12 minutes and then remove from heat. Leave cover on for another 15 minutes. Transfer to a food processor and pulse till paste consistency. Place in a large bowl.
- In a large skillet, melt vegetable shortening over medium high heat and add onion and red pepper. Cook until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and spinach and toss until spinach is just wilted. Pour into a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Transfer to the large bowl.
- Heat the same pan over medium high and heat olive oil. Once hot, add mushrooms and cook 4-5 minutes until tender. Pulse until chopped but not pureed. Transfer to the large bowl.
- Add the shredded carrots, to the large bowl.
- Pulse nuts in food processor until finely chopped but not pureed. Add to the large bowl.
- Pulse the rolled oats until a course powder. Add to the large bowl.
- Place flax seed in food processor and process for one to two minutes until the seeds have split. Add to the large bowl.
- Pulse the dry mushrooms until they resemble a grainy powder and add to the large bowl.
- Place the Chex in the food processor and process until fine. Add to the large bowl.
- Pulse the drained and rinsed hominy in the food processor until chopped fine but not pureed. Add to the large bowl.
- To the large bowl, add salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, oregano, mayonnaise, beaten egg and Kitchen Bouquet.
- With a wooden spoon, mix all ingredients until well combined. Form into 16 four ounce patties and place on a parchment lined sheet pan or other pan that will fit in your freezer. Freeze then wrap for later use.
- To cook, place a little oil or pan spray in a pan and cook the patty over medium heat like a burger, about three to four minutes per side if cooking from frozen. Serve as you would a burger by topping with cheese or other burger toppings such as lettuce and tomato.
- If you will be cooking and not freezing, let patties firm up in the refrigerator for an hour then cook using the same method, except cook them for fewer minutes per side.
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UPDATE: I have now tried this recipe and it is a winner! I have tried several store brands of veggie burgers (so-so), and this recipe is ranking up there with the new Impossible Burger. While the Impossible Burger definitely rivals “real” meat, and I will be a customer, this Veggie Burger is a great meal on its own, is healthy, and much less expensive to buy! The texture is perfect for burgers and these went over well at our picnic today. We vegetarians (and a family member with Celiac) loved them, and the carnivores thought they were good also. I did grill the burgers on a Big Green Egg and this worked fine. (Brushed with a little oil to help prevent sticking and it seemed to work well). And because this is gluten free, I was able to put these on my grill without fear of cross-contamination. I will definitely be making these again! And while it took a little extra prep time, the 16 patties are the equivalent of four pounds of meat, so can make more than one meal. Thank you to “A Family Feast” for this creative recipe!
★★★★★
WOW Lindley – thank YOU so much! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, and I’m also glad you let us know about your success with grilling them too. Thanks again!
This recipe sounds wonderful and I am hoping to try it this coming week for a barbecue. My question is whether you have tried these on a grill, as the recipe calls for pan frying, and if so, what were the results? I look for tasty sounding GF options to use for family dinners as we have a family member with Celiac. I did want to note that for a person with true Celiac, it is important to make sure the oats are certified gluten free as sometimes they can be cross-contaminated. Same goes for Rice Chex. I believe the General Mills branded Rice Chex is certified GF, but one time I looked at a generic brand, thinking it would be GF but it was not. Just something to watch for. Can’t wait to try this! Thank you!
Thanks for pointing that out Lindley! We haven’t tried these on the grill ourselves, just pan fried. If you try it, please let us know if it works!
Your burger looks very tasty. It has lots of healthy ingredients- bookmarking this one!
Thank you!