Wild Rice Burgers

It has been a week of burgers.  It has been such an intense few weeks that some simple burgers have been welcome meals.  We have had to deal with Sylvia's flu, medical appointments, school swimming lessons on consecutive days, neighbours' noise and my workplace gearing up for some big events, just to name a few of the challenges.  Sylvia has embraced Christmas (thanks major supermarkets and all your unseasonal displays) so I am now starting to worry about getting organised for festivities.

I had my eye on these Wild Rice Burgers from Pinch of Yum for some time and finally made them on the weekend.  I still had salad vegetable that I had bought the previous week in hope of making them.  Unfortunately it was more the sort of week when I was eating baked beans for tea because no energy to think about it, or eating a little tub of nuts and some stewed fruit found in my bag because I didn't have time to make lunch or go and buy it.  Thank goodness that I have well stocked pantry and bag even in busy times.

I decided to veganise the burgers.  Actually I had seen these burgers veganised on Yup It's Vegan but wanted to come at it from another angle.  There are so many ways to make any dish vegan!  I stuck a lot more closely to the recipe, using vegannaise instead of mayonnaise and substituting aquafaba (chickpea brine), chia seeds and flours for the 4 eggs.  I also changed around the flavours.

At first I thought that my changes had made the burgers too soft.  However once chilling them, they mixture was much easier to handle.  I also found that the flavours, which initially seemed too strong, settled after chilling.

My burgers were much darker than Pinch of Yum's burgers.  I am not sure why.  They were really really good.  I really loved them because they reminded me a little of the burgers I had as a child and they crisped up really nicely.  Though I wish they had had a bit more protein.  I was pleased in a busy period that the mixture produced 12 burgers which almost lasted a week.

The first day I served them on  my own sourdough buns , which were a bit heavy for the burgers.  The more traditional light and fluffy white burger buns worked better.  The day after I made them I took a sandwich to work of fresh sourdough bread and cold burger with some cheese and tomato sauce.  It was so good I ate it before lunch with a colleague and did not see anything better at the cafe where I was quite content just to drink a green smoothie.  I took them down to my parents on the weekend and cooked them up for dinner.  The leftover I took for when we arrived home. 

I can highly recommend these burgers.  I would suggest maybe starting with a bit less aquafaba and serving in a burger bun.  But I am confident that they would be excellent in so many ways.

More vegan burgers on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Earth Burgers (gf, v)
Roasted beetroot tofu burgers (gf, v)
Smoky apple vegie burgers (v)
Sweet potato, chickpea and hemp seed burgers (v)
Tamale burgers with mole sauce (gf, v)
Vegemite burger (v) 
Watercourse Foods tempeh burger (gf,v)

Wild Rice Burgers
Adapted from Pinch of Yum
Makes about 12

1 1/2 cup raw wild rice
1 cup button mushrooms, finely diced
1/2 cup aquafaba*
3 tbsp potato starch
2 tbsp tapioca flour/starch
3 tbsp chia seeds
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2-3 cup breadcrumbs
2 tsp salt and pepper mix
2 tsp smoked paprka
1 tsp seeded mustard
oil for frying

Firstly cook wild rice.  Place raw rice in hot water, cover and bring to the boil.  Stir, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.  Pinch of Yum says this should make about 5 cups of cooked rice.

Mix rice with all ingredients.  It is best to chill the mixture in the fridge.  My mixture lasted about a week in the fridge.  Heat 1-3 tbsp of oil in a large frypan.  Wet hands.  Take a handful and shape into round flat burger patties and put straight into frypan.  Fry for a few minutes on each side over medium heat or until crisp and dark.  Drain on kitchen towel.

Mixture keeps in the fridge for up to a week.  Serve straight away in a burger bun or keep overnight and eat cold in a sandwich.  Cooked burgers can be left in the fridge overnight and heated either in the oven or on the grill.

On the stereo:
Flood: They Might Be Giants