The Cows Will Thank You! a vegetarian (and sometimes vegan) food blog

Ok.  I’ve decided to share my top secret recipe for my famous southwest veggie burgers.  I’ve fed this totally original recipe to burger connoisseurs far and wide and have never came across someone who wasn’t totally drooling their faces off at this burger.  I’ve had 100% meat-eating friends tell me that this was the best veggie burger they ever had (thanks Shoebag!) and another friend, a former vegetarian who absolutely swears off veggie burgers with disgust in her eyes, stuffing every last bite of the sandwich into her face.  This isn’t your typical veggie burger.  Are you ready?

Serves 3

Preperation notes:

Once the burger patties are formed, the best way to cook them is on a George Foreman or similar panini-like grill.  Other options would be pan frying or baking, but grilling them this way beautifully bonds the ingredients so the burgers don’t fall apart.  Grilling them on an outdoor grill is horrible, unless you have some sort of pan or griddle you can use.

If you’re not a vegan, a little shredded cheddar cheese in the burger mixture helps bond all the ingredients together better

Ingredients:

• 1 lb or 1 store-bought pack of chunked seitan
• 1.5 lbs of sliced mushrooms
• 1 small-mediumish onion, chopped
• 4 large cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 large red pepper, chopped
• 1 large green pepper, chopped (OK to use 2 red peppers instead)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• Oil for frying
• Cumin
• Adobo seasoning
• Chipoltle powder
• 3 fresh burger rolls

Unfortunately this recipe is a no-go unless you have a food processor.

Recommended toppings:

• 1 avocado, cut into slices
• Mayo mixed with 2/3 tsp chipoltle powder (optional — roasted red pepper or chipoltle hummus might be a good vegan substitute)
• Cheddar cheese, sliced (optional, but if you’re not vegan this is damn tasty with the other toppings)

Directions:

1. Run the onion and garlic together through the food processor until very finely chopped, set aside.
2. Run the peppers through the food processor until very finely chopped.  Drain excess liquid and set aside.
3. Run the seitan through the food processor until a chopped, ground meat-like consistency and set aside in a large mixing bowl
4. Run the mushrooms through the food processor until finely chopped (don’t overdo it though, it won’t take long) and set aside in the mixing bowl with the seitan
5. In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil and over medium heat, cook the onion, garlic and peppers until hot, soft and aromatic
6. Add in the seitan and mushroom and stir, mixing together well
7. Sprinkle the cumin liberally over the mixture in the skillet until there is a light coating covering it (I imagine this is like 2 tbsp)
8. Sprinkle the adobo seasonining a little less liberally, probably 1 tbsp
9. Sprinkle the chipoltle even less, probably a teaspoon or less — unless you want to turn up the heat and make the burgers spicy, then add more
10. Stir the mixture and leave simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes to let the flavors absorb
11. Transfer the mixture back into the mixing bowl.  Cover and pop into the freezer for 10 minutes.
12. Once the mixture has cooled, mix in the rolled oats until they’re evenly dispersed.  At this point, if you’re not vegan, you might want to mix in a little shredded cheddar cheese to help bond the ingredients.
13. Form into patties, grill, and serve!

This recipe is totally original.  If you’re reposting or emailing, I’d appreciate it if you included TheCowsWillThankYou.wordpress.com in your post somewhere 🙂