Chickpea, edamame and mushroom burger with lemon basil mayo. Vegan friendly and Gluten-Free

Since my mom’s aversion to eggs in the past year, I’ve been trying to find creative ways to make things without eggs. There’s a huge benefit to that since one of my boyfriend’s sister no longer eats meat and eggs.

Last night, I felt like cooking some sort of vegan friendly burger that my mom would enjoy so off to the internet I went to get some inspiration.  The biggest complaint many people have regarding vegan friendly burgers is how delicate it can be.  Obviously, because there is no eggs, you have to be extremely careful with them but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The key thing is to find a good substitute that’ll help bind the burger mixture together. Even with a good binding ingredient, you’re still going to have to be gentle with them.

For these burgers, I used chickpea flour, which makes these burgers perfect for those who cannot have food that contains gluten! Chickpea flour, compared to breadcrumbs, worked much better with these burgers since they were able to hold its shape during the baking process. They were still delicate but if you’re gentle enough, they will hold its shape and not fall apart on you.

Adding edamame to these chickpea burgers gave them a nice sweetness and texture to the mushy chickpeas, whereas, the mushrooms gave the burgers a meaty and earthy taste to it. The lemon-basil mayo added some brightness to the burger, which was so delicious! The lemon zest added freshness and the basil gave it that herby taste. To keep these vegan friendly, I used Follow Your Heart’s Veganaise but you can use regular mayo if you want.  However, I will say that you should definitely give vegan mayo a taste because, in my opinion, tastes so much better than regular mayo! My boyfriend, who is a huge meat eater and isn’t super health conscious, prefers the taste of vegan mayo than regular mayo.

 

Ingredients:

For the burgers:

• 1-15oz can canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
• 1/2 cup shelled and boiled edamame. You can use defrosted and boiled frozen peas if you can’t find edamame.
• 1 cup white mushrooms, chopped finely
• 1/2 yellow or white onion, diced finely
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp red chili powder, or to taste
• 1.5 tsp cumin-coriander powder
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• couple pinches of onion powder and garlic powder
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour

Lemon-Basil Mayo:

• 1/2 cup veganaise
• 1 tbsp basil, chopped finely
• zest of 1 lemon
• pinch of cayenne pepper, optional

Directions

1. For the lemon-basil mayo: combine all ingredients and set aside
2. In a pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the chopped onions and mushrooms and stir.
3. Add a pinch of salt to the mixture and mix. This is going to release the water in mushrooms and onions which will prevent them from turning brown and allow it to braise in the liquid instead. You’ll see a lot of liquid at first but then it’ll evaporate after a few minutes.
4. Once the liquid is evaporated, add the minced garlic and cook for about 1 minute to get rid of the raw taste. Turn off heat and set aside for 5 minutes.
5. In a food processor, add the chickpeas, edamame, and mushroom and onion mixture. Pulse a few times or for about 10 seconds. Don’t worry if all the edamame and chickpeas are not pureed completely because you want that texture in the burger. What you’re looking for is a slightly pureed texture with some course pieces of chickpeas and edamame.
6. Dump the mixture into a bowl and add all the spices and salt and pepper. Mix to combine and taste to adjust seasonings.
7. Add the chickpea flour about a tablespoon at a time until you can form a patty. The mixture will still be sticky but you should be able to form a patty with your hands.
8. Place the patties in a chickpea dusted plate. You should be able to get at least 5 mediumish size patties.
9. Add the patties gently onto a lightly greased parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
10. Bake in a 410F oven for 25 minutes, flipping once or until the tops turn slightly brown. Be very gentle in the flipping.
11. Serve the patties with the lemon-basil mayo! Eat it with a fork or put it between a vegan friendly or gluten free sandwich bun!