Vegan Quinoa Lettuce Burgers

 

This month's Recipe Redux theme is a Play on Patties. So with our fellow bloggers, you will be seeing a pelthora of delicious, healthy patties--turkey burgers, potato patties, and the like--in honor of St. Patty's Day, of course.

We have been on a quinoa kick lately, in part because quinoa is awesome and also because of the quinoa book that we've been working on. So we decided to develop a recipe that uses this great grain as a meat substitute. As a bonus, we've used flax seed instead of the traditional egg to bind the ingredients together so that it's vegan as well. Between quinoa being a complete protein and the flax having so many great Omega-3's, this burger is a great meat substitute. And because you have the grain on the inside of the burger, you don't need the bun and can fill up on veggies instead!

And it's really delicious. The end.

Ingredients
1 1/2 C quinoa, cooked
3/4 C shredded apple
2 green onions, chopped
1 T Worcestershire sauce (Take out for vegan version)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/2 C cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp ground flax + 4 Tbsp water
coconut oil
tomato
green leaf lettuce

Directions
1. Mix together the quinoa, shredded apple, and green onion.
2. In a small bowl, mix together Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic. Pour over quinoa and stir. Stir in the cornmeal.
3. Using a blender, food processor, or electric mixer, beat together flax and water until it becomes thick. Add to quinoa and stir.
4. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Put a small amount of coconut oil on the skillet. Form a patty with your hands and place it in the pan. Allow it to brown on one side and then carefully flip it over.
5. When the patty has been cooked on both sides, remove from heat and place on a paper towel to absorb extra oil. Let cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Top with a thick tomato slice and wrap in several leaves of lettuce. Enjoy immediately.

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