We. Love. July 4th.
Parades, everyone wears red, white, and blue, American flags are everywhere, there are fireworks in the sky, parties, and lots and lots of food and libations!!!! Eeek……so exciting!
Do you love this patriotic day that’s filled with fun festivities, tradition, and food as much as we do? I mean, come on, who doesn’t like to celebrate, eat, drink, and get together with hundreds of your closest friends and neighbors and ooohhh and aaahhhh over pyrotechnics?
If you haven’t noticed, Alex and I recently slaved over a hot stove, and broke our backs standing at the kitchen counter, chopping, dicing, blending, and stirring, to create seventeen delectable vegan 4th of July recipes for our first eBook!!!! We then risked carpel tunnel syndrome clicking hundreds of photos of the deliciousness we created, typing up the recipes on our computers, and then editing, editing, and editing.
But we loved every minute of it!!!!
Really, we did. Cooking is therapy for us, and so is eating what we cooked. And, the great thing about our recipes is that we don’t get fat eating them because they are all (well, most of them) healthy, plant based foods.
Since there are only 16 days until we get to break out the flag clothes, we thought we would share (and hopefully entice you to buy our book ) one of our favorite picnic food recipes. This is one of many super yummy recipes that screams OUTDOOR PARTY FOOD!!!!
We guarantee that this chickpea burger will make you go ooooooohhhhhh, then, mmmmmmmm, and then, why sure, I’ll have seconds, twist my arm.
You can make the patties the day before and just heat them up right before you eat them. Perfect for taking to a party!
Now, let’s look at what’s in these awesome burgers.
Talk about guilt free eating. These wholesome babies are packed full of nutrients, protein, and flavor. And, as if that wasn’t good enough, there isn’t one bit of cholesterol in these pretty little patties! But let’s be real, who cares how healthy something is if it doesn’t put a smile on your face and make your taste buds sing. Right? Uh-huh, it’s all about the taste, and these burgers do NOT disappoint. Plus, they’re easy to make. Nutritious, Tasty, Easy – the perfect food trinity.
Soooo, let’s get cookiin good lookin.
First drain and rinse your chickpeas and then put them in a large food processor. Next, add the iron rich spinach and vitamin A packed carrots. Your eyes and muscles are going to love you! Sprinkle in the yeast and spices and get grinding.
When the mixture comes together and forms a ball, transfer it to a bowl and stir in the onions. Why not add the onions to the processor? Because I feel like all of that grinding releases the water in the onions and it makes the mixture wet and hard to work with.
The last step is the best, it reminds me of art projects. Don’t ask me why, it just does. Measure out 1/3 of a cup of the mixture and turn it into a patty. If you’re going to store them, separate each patty with a piece of parchment paper and place them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You could also cook them and heat them up the next day if you like.
Sooooo pretty
We put ours on a pretzel bread bun, OMG, so, so, so, so perfect for this. Finally, we topped it with some leafy lettuce, sweet heirloom tomatoes, and a dollop (I love that word) of guacamole. Okay, I’ve gotta stop now and go make some for dinner. My mouth is salivating. I think I’ll make some Cuban sweet potato fries and one of my favorite salads to go with it.
If you want to see more of our easy, festive, scrumptious recipes, such as coconut cream parfaits, jalapeno corn bread poppers, and tomato-watermelon-mint salad, buy our book. We also included two seriously good drinks that are perfect for summer relaxing.
Until next time, Xoxo
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil or vegetable oil
- 1 25 ounce can of chickpeas drained
- 1 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1 large onion – minced
- 3 cloves of garlic
- ½ cup of spinach
- ½ cup of baby carrots
- ½ red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the onions and the oil, to a food processor and blend until the mixture is firm and moldable. Transfer to a medium size bowl and stir in the onions.
- For 3 and ½ inch burgers measure out 1/3 of a cup of the mixture and roll into a ball, then flatten into a round patty.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil on medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add patties to the pan and cook until golden brown and then flip and cook the other side until golden brown.
- Add the other tablespoon of oil if needed.
BitOVegan says
I attempted these, omitting onion and garlic. They turned to mush ): I'm guessing the onions help hold the patties together better.
Linda Meyer says
Hi, I'm sorry they didn't turn out, we've never had a problem. The onions and garlic wouldn't be the problem as they aren't binding agents. It sounds like the mixture may have been too wet if they turned to mush. Did you drain the liquid from the chickpeas? I hope I can help you figure out the problem. 🙂
BitOVegan says
I drained all the liquid. Perhaps I over-processed them or didn't add enough carrots?
Linda Meyer says
My guess is that you may have over-processed them. Bean burgers can be tricky, I'd suggest adding a few tablespoons of the liquid from the can of chickpeas if you make them again. It works like an egg substitute, which is a binding agent. 🙂