SOYA AND QUINOA BURGERS

Is it just me or do homemade vegan burgers never quite meet expectations?  Mine are normally too dry so as soon as your fork makes even the slightest contact, they fall apart like a stack of dominos.  This  has been a major issue for me and I’ve spent hours making different versions, desperate to make it work.  I’ve tried using beans, lentils and don’t even get me started on flax seeds which have none of the properties of an egg replacer they are supposed to have in my opinion.

I want my burger to be soya based but those little brown morsels don’t seem to naturally want to be close to each other and fall apart at the first opportunity.  So one day I made a recipe for quinoa bread and had that lightbulb moment….maybe this stuff could bind my burgers!   I gave it a whirl and the rest is history.  I used whizzed up quinoa in loads of recipes and it works a treat in grabbing the ingredients together and forcing them into a united being.  Try my meatballs and corn fritters too.

INGREDIENTS

200g frozen soya mince
200g quinoa, soaked for 24 hours
100g fresh breadcrumbs 90g
1 red onion
2 tbsp tomato sauce (shop bought or make your own)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
Handful of chopped parsley
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tps garlic powder
Himalayan salt
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1. Soak the uncooked quinoa in plenty of cold water for at least 24 hours. You can’t mess about with this part, it has to be soaked.  Drain and set aside.
2. Place the soya in a bowl and allow to sit at room temperature to defrost for 30 minutes or so.
3. In the meantime, place the quinoa in a high speed food processor and whizz on full power until completely smooth. You have to be patient and get the right consistency for it to work.  Give the processor a break if you need to to prevent overheating and keep scraping the sides.  I usually make a load and it freezes well so you don’t have to go through this process every time.  Once its smooth (the consistency of a good nut butter) its done.
4. Remove the quinoa and set aside.
5. Add the bread to the processor and whizz briefly into crumbs then add the red onion, tomato sauce, rapeseed oil, parsley, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and salt.
6. Mix to bind and then add to the quinoa.
7. Finally add the sesame seeds and wholegrain mustard and mix well. At this stage the mixture will be quite wet and you will never believe it can turn into a burger but fear not.  Line a baking tray with rapeseed oil spray and dollop the mixture into circles.
8. Flatten gently but keep the shape.
9. Bake at 210 for 30 minutes and half way through flip them over.

Serve on a ciabatta roll with homemade tomato sauce, guacamole, pickled gherkin and romaine lettuce.