Garry Welch, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Silver Fern Healthcare.
For Silver Fern’s What’s on My Plate Series, Dr. Welch shared one of his recently perfected recipes for a veggie burger. Garry loves to cook and explore ways to make delicious, healthy food for his family. “The main goal was that the veggie burger tasted great, was whole-food, plant-based and the recipe was doable,” he shared.
“I have been playing around with a veggie burger project for a while and now have finished my research and experimentation on family. We had a meal at my sister-in-law’s, and we served this veggie burger made of black beans, mushroom, chickpeas, red pepper, etc., and it got the thumbs up!”
Garry adds that the recipe freezes well, so you can make a large batch and throw them in the freezer for an easy weeknight or lunchtime go-to.
As for plating, Garry says, “You can leave the bun out and just put the veggie burger on an egg or alongside a salad, so it’s quite versatile.”
Vegeburger, courtesy of Garry Welch
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a frying pan, sautee 1 T olive oil, 2 T crushed garlic, 1 finely chopped onion, and 1 large finely chopped red bell pepper. Add 1 T S&F ginger teriyaki marinade (or a similar teriyaki with ginger brand). Stir for 15 minutes on moderate heat and then set aside to cool.
- Drain 2 cans of black beans. Finely chop 2 portobella mushroom caps and drizzled with some ginger teriyaki marinade. Spread the drained black beans and mushrooms on two large oven sheets. Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 mins to dry them out. This step is important as will remove some water from beans and mushrooms to prevent mushiness of the final burger. Let the mix cool.
- Combine the following in a large bowl and mash with a fork. Don’t overdo it with the fork mashing. Mix until the beans and chickpeas are broken up but not completely mashed (again, keep some interesting texture in the mix).
- Bean and mushroom mix
- Onion/red pepper mix
- Feta or goat cheese – 2 oz, crumbled (you can leave this out if vegan or replace with plant-based cheese)
- ½ Cup of whole grain breadcrumbs to bind and dry out the mixture
- 1 Can of chickpeas, drained
- 1 Beaten egg
- Divide the mixture into 10 even-sized balls and push each down into hamburger patty rings that will provide a nice round shape. Use spatula to move the patties on a wax paper lined sheet and rest in fridge for 30 minutes to set the patties. Excess patties can be frozen for later use in a Tupperware container with wax sheets between patties.
- To cook the burgers: Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in large pan over medium heat. Cook the patties on one side for 7 minutes until getting slightly crispy and browned before flipping to the other side for 7 minutes. Take patties out of the pan with a spatula to keep intact and let them rest.
- To prepare the sauce: combine equal parts mayonnaise (Sir Kensington’s brand is good) and sweet honey mustard (Stonewall Kitchen brand is good). Add a few shakes of smokey hot Mexican Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero (Yucateco brand is good). For a hotter burger sauce, simply add more of this salsa. Or you can use some other alternate hot sauce you prefer.
- Assembling the burger: Use whole wheat hamburger buns (Dave’s killer bread buns are very good) or a similar whole wheat burger bun brand. To the bottom bun spread on a layer of humus. Then place the black bean burger patty and layer a 1 tsp of the sauce on top of that. Next add a layer of Spinach for the greens. Then a slice of tomato (salt and pepper to season), followed by a slice of avocado. Finish with the top bun.
What about side dishes to go with the burger?
Sweet potato fries go well with the burgers: Peel and slice some sweet potatoes into thick slices and soak the fries for 4 hours in the fridge. Drain and pat dry. Toss in a Ziplock bag with enough cornstarch to cover all the fries and shake off any excess cornstarch. Cook the fries in small batches in olive oil at a medium heat in the frypan, turning frequently, until golden brown. Drain and place in a bowl lined with paper towels to soak up the oil and toss, adding salt as preferred or as appropriate. Serve straight away.
Asparagus goes well also. Microwave asparagus spears in a steamer with a toss of olive oil for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper as appropriate. Shake some parmesan cheese over the cooked asparagus and serve. You can add a few shakes of some Cholula sweet habanero hot sauce if you are like me and want to kick this asparagus side dish up a bit for extra flavor. Asparagus can be served hot or room temp.