Burgers... of the veggie sort

I love a good burger. It is an occasional essential to me. So we saw the recipe that started this, er... experiment on "Good Eats." It seemed delicious and nutritious! What a mix.

Personally, I don't eat veggie burgers because I have some thing against meat. In fact, I'm a pretty big fan of it. However, I like to try new and different things and this recipe just happened to fit into that. As we are trying to eat leaner and more nutritiously dense foods, trading in the greasy cheeseburger for a turkey burger sounded like a good coice. But why not an occasional heaping serving of vegetables on a whole wheat bun? So we gave this recipe a try. It took two attempts to get it to where I was very happy with it. And I'll discuss some other changes I might try in the future after I give you the recipe. Start to finish does take a bit of time, but they refrigerate well for a few days so we made it early in the week and then had a quick option for throwing together lunch or dinner for quite a few meals

2 tbsp olive oil, split

1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
kosher salt and black pepper
2 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped carrots
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
3 cups broth*
1 cup dry split peas, picked and rinsed
1/2 cup dry brown rice
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp hot sauce
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

Heat 1 TBSP of olive oil in 4-6 quart saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and bell pepper along with a generous pinch of salt. Carmelize for about 5 minutes. Turn down to medium heat, add the garlic, mushrooms and carrots and cook for another 5 (ish) minutes.

Add the broth, peas, rice, coriander, cumin, hot sauce, and worcestershire sauce. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Decrease heat to low, cover and cook at a simmer for 1 hour or until the rice and peas are tender.

Remove from heat and gently pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor (a stick blender would also be a convenient way to do this). Process until combined (about 5-10 pulses). Pour this mixture into a bowl and add 3/4 cup bread crumbs. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Shape this mixture into patties and dredge each side in the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs**. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add 2 burgers at a time and saute until brown on each side (3-4 minutes per side depending on your stovetop). Serve immediately.

* I recommend low fat low salt broth. It will still give you great flavor without nearly doubling the sodium content of this recipe, the way that traditional broth does. Also, use you favorite flavor of broth. If you are interested in this recipe for the vegan / vegetarian aspect, clearly you want vegetable broth. As I said earlier, we have nothing against meat. I wanted to give the burgers a little bit of a "beefy / meaty" flavor so I used beef broth.

** You can also put a little parmesan cheese in the crumbs, or extra spices and herbs. The point of the bread crumbs is to give your burgers that crispy carmelized texture you get when you heat up a burger.

The recipe also mentions you can grill these burgers. I see no problem in that as they do have a pretty solid texture, however I have not tested it myself. You may want to have a skillet heat on backup...

Now, for what I'm going to try differently next time: Defintely will be getting experimental with adding more spices and maybe some fresh herbs. While these were the most flavorful veggie burgers I've ever made, it did take a good bit of salt. I think you could cut some of this out with the addition of maybe some celery seed, fresh parsley and cilantro....  Also, I want to try putting in black beans instead of brown rice as this gives a serving a little bit more of a protien punch, and you get plenty of carbs from the vegetables and bun. And as far as vegetables: go crazy! You can add anything your little heart desires. Things that have tougher dispositions (celery, green beans, parsnips...) should be sauteed early whereas veggies that cook quicker or are frozen can be added pretty late in the game (broccoli, corn...) And lastly, garnish this the same way you would with your favorite burger: lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, onions...

Nutritional content:
calories 128
calories from fat: 26
total fat: 2.9g
saturated fat: .5g
trans fat: 0.0g
cholesterol: 0mg
sodium: 388mg
total carbohydrates: 19.8g
dietary fiber: 4.3g
sugars: 2.4g
protein: 6g
vitamin a: 15%
vitamin c: 9%
calcium: 3% 
iron: 8%

So go out into the world and enjoy a vegetable every once in a while. It can be a rather tasty experience...
Cheers! LiA

References:
caloriecount.about.com
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/split-pea-burgers-recipe/index.html