Nutburgers

Years ago I bought our daughter a vegetarian cookbook.  One of our favorite recipes is for nutburgers.  This is a nut based vegetarian burger that is delicious even for omnivores, such as myself.  We eat a lot of vegetarian meals, not for any other reason than that we like them.  You don't have to eat meat every day.

Tara has that book packed away and we couldn't find the recipe on the internet, so we winged it based on memory.  It was darn good, if I do say so.

Nutburger

1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 egg
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup almond flour or bread crumbs.   The recipe calls for breadcrumbs, but I am going low carb and substituted almond meal.
1/3 cup minced onion
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro or flat leafed parsley.  The recipe called for parsley, but I like cilantro and needed it for another meal. 
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon soy sauce
salt and pepper

 

I use a nut chopper for the walnuts. 

 

You don't want any chunks, almost a fine crumb.  I imagine a food processor would also work.

 

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Heat a large fry pan with a drizzle of oil over medium heat.  Divide into four sections and gently form a patty.

 

Place the patty into the hot pan.  Cook until a medium, almost dark brown on the bottom.  These burgers are very soft.  It is their goal in life to fall apart when you turn them over to cook the other side. 

 

Loosen all around the edges and lift with one spatula.  Hold another spatula with your other hand and press it on top of the burger. 

 

Turn your wrists to flip the burger over and gently return it to the pan. 

 

If you like cheese add a few slices on top and let them melt as the other side cooks.  If you like them extra melty, place a lid on top for a minute or so.  Not too long or they will melt all over the place and not be on your burger.

 

While the burgers are cooking, assemble the things you like on a traditional hamburger.

We had:

cheese
lettuce
sliced avocado
sliced onion
sliced tomato
mayonnaise
mustard
ketchup
pickle relish
and for those carb eaters among us....buns.

 

Prepare the buns and place the burger directly on them.  These generally don't hold up well enough to serve on a platter.

 


They are also great served without a bun.

They are delicious and nutty.  They taste similar to a burger, but that may be because of all the burger toppings.  They don't replace beef burgers in our diet, but they are a tasty addition.