The Challenge: Design, cook, and implement a dinner menu for a backyard wedding with 80 guests and a budget of $1000. Today we tackle the problem of a vegetarian entree.
I’m going to take the risk of driving everyone bananas by pointing out one more time that I am not a meat-less type of person. I know I’ve mentioned it before. And probably several times after that, but I’m bringing it up again to give you some idea of how challenging it’s been for me to come up with a good appropriately themed vegetarian main dish for the wedding.
To recap for those who have just joined us, I’m handling the catering for cousin Kyra’s wedding to Matt (the most important vegetarian!). The wedding is in a backyard, and food is going to be bbq/picnic style. Pulled pork, pasta salad, potato salad, will be gracing the table among other things. This is all well and good, except what on Earth do you make for a vegetarian main dish?
I feel like vegetarians kind of get the short end stick at a picnic. All side dishes but no main course. I really don’t want this to happen at the wedding.
So I brainstormed. By myself. With my husband. With the bride and groom. With my Mom. I scoured the internet. I tested recipes galore, including a lovely ratatouille, a killer garlic and ginger tofu (Yes! I’m actually saying the tofu was good… I’ll share the recipe some time so you can see for yourselves.), but nothing was quite right. Finally, while I was chatting with the bride and groom it came to me! Veggie burgers. And not those yucky, comes in a box, in the frozen section, veggie burgers. Something homemade, flavorful, that even I, the not-meat-less girl would eat. So black bean, chickpea, and quinoa burgers were born.
Bingo.
(I suppose these are more of a legume and grain burger then a veggie burger technically, but it gets the job done…. and darn it all if I didn’t end up using quinoa in another recipe!)
These burgers are so flavor packed. I would actually eat them, like on purpose, on a regular basis. The trick is plenty of spices, flavorful ingredients like caramelized onion, black beans (which I personally adore), and green chilies.
These are great topped with cheese, or any of the traditional burger condiments, but they also rock all on their own. So finally, a real main dish for the vegetarians! Hurah!
♫ Problem solved, the problem is solved, we solved the problem, everything is awesome, problem solved! ♫ (Yeah my kids have been watching Peg + Cat lately.)
Black Bean, Chickpea, and Quinoa Burgers
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- splash of olive oil
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups cooked black beans
- 1 and 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 7 oz can diced green chilies
Instructions
- 1. In a small skillet pan to medium high heat. Add a splash of olive oil, onion and garlic and cook until the onion becomes dark and caramelized.
- 2. In a large bowl add the black beans, and chickpeas. Smash the beans and chickpeas using the back of a fork. (Smash until you reach your desired texture. I left some nearly whole beans and chickpeas in mine for a coarser texture.)
- 3.When the onion and garlic are fully cooked add to the large bowl along with the quinoa, parsley, sage, paprika, oregano, mustard powder, sea salt, black pepper, and brown sugar. Mix very well to combine. Add the soy sauce and the green chilies (with their juice) to the bowl. Mix again to combine.
- 5. Use your hands to form 6-8 patties from the mixture. The mixture will be on the wet side. Place each patty on a foil lined baking tray.
- 6. Bake the patties at 350* for about 20 minutes until the patties become browned on top and firmer. Cool completely before storing.
Also a side note: As written this recipe is vegan. The patties can be more on the delicate, crumbly side. However, feel free to add an egg, to act as a binder. It will make the patties easier to work with.
These are so tasty. I should have added the egg (I m not vegetarian) They do fall apart easily but so yummy
Hey Heidi-
Glad you enjoyed the recipe. I do agree, they definitely fall apart too easily. The egg is a great idea. I’d also love to find another binder that is vegan… of you have any suggestions please do share!
Mix 1 tablespoon ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons warm water. Let sit about 5 minutes until it forms a gel. They call it
“flax egg”. It works like an egg to bind as well as adding even more nutrition!
Excellent suggestion. Thank you for sharing!
I use sweet potato as my binder for any veggie burgers. I find it tastes better than the egg and it keeps it vegan. I think this recipe would go very well with sweet potatoes, I’m actually going to make some right now .
Excellent idea!! I’ll have to try that!
What a wonderful recipe. I made a few changes, some out of necessity and some out of choice. The biggest ones: using sweet potato as per the recommendation above, adding in 1/4 cup toasted, finely chopped pumpkin seeds, and cutting back the sugar by 1 tsp. Soooo delicious!
Sounds delicious!! I really think the sweet potato is a brilliant solution.