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Homemade veggie burgers that taste delicious and are made traditionally with no soy or MSG that can serve as a budget-friendly replacement for meat occasionally.
Back in my lowfat eating days in the 1990s, I used to eat a lot of veggie burgers to limit the amount of red meat in my diet. Thankfully, those days are but a distant memory!
I now know, of course, that grassfed beef is one of the healthiest meats you can possibly consume and I usually eat it several times a week. Saturated fat is not the villain of heart and health that the conventional medical establishment makes it out to be.Â
Rather, saturated fat is good for you, is no danger to cardiovascular health and should be consumed liberally in the diet!
Despite my regular consumption of grassfed burgers, I must admit that I still have a bit of a penchant for a good quality veggie burger.Â
I don’t ever buy them at the store, however, as processed veggie burgers are typically made with soy as the meat replacement and MSG is used to give the tasteless burgers a synthetic meaty flavor.
Soy and MSG together are a powerful one-two punch to the hormone system and are guaranteed to mess things up in a hurry.Â
It will probably give you a nasty headache too!
Therefore, when you get a hankering for veggie burgers, avoid the seitan and products containing it and make some yourself.
The good news is that you can make a bunch of them at one time. Then, freeze what you don’t use right away so that you have some handy for quick meals when necessary.
No Soy or MSG!
Below is the recipe I use for homemade veggie burgers which is based on the Middle Eastern recipe known as falafel or chickpea patties. You will love it! It was inspired by Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. (1)
Sprouting or soaking legumes like chickpeas before cooking greatly improves their digestibility, so this is the traditional method I recommend.
Please do not use the chickpea cooking water though as practiced by some espousing a plant-based diet. It is laced with anti-nutrients and quite damaging to health. It can even encourage the development of leaky gut.
If the real food budget is tight, homemade veggie burgers can be frequently used as a meat replacement with no compromise to health if and only if liberal amounts of homemade broth/stock and organ meats are being consumed on a regular basis.
In other words, nose to tail eating as was practiced by healthy traditional societies is what is necessary if muscle meat is limited either due to lifestyle or budget. (2)
Healthy Veggie Burgers
Homemade veggie burgers that actually taste good and are made traditionally with no soy or MSG that can serve as a budget friendly replacement for meat on a regular basis.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried chickpeas preferably heirloom and organic
- 1/4 cup expeller pressed coconut oil or lard
- filtered water
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/2 cup parsley finely chopped, preferably organic
- 2 small onions finely chopped, preferably organic
- 4 cloves garlic minced, preferably organic
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- sourdough burger buns optional
Instructions
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Place dried chickpeas in a large pot and cover with boiling water. Stir in lemon juice, cover and leave on the counter for 12 hours or overnight. Drain, cover the chickpeas with more boiling water, and stir in 2 more Tbsp lemon juice. Leave on the counter for another 12 hours. Drain and rinse chickpeas.
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Process soaked chickpeas in batches depending on the size of your food processor with the beaten egg, onion, parsley, garlic, and spices until a coarse paste is formed that holds together.
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Cover and refrigerate chickpea paste for at least 1 hour.
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Serve veggie burgers on sourdough buns with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, and homemade sauces of choice.
(1) Nourishing Traditions, p. 506
(2) Meat, Organs, Bones and Skin
Yum and double-yum … I’ve been in the mood for black-bean burgers, and THIS is just wild!!
If you were going to freeze them for later, would you freeze them before cooking in the oil or after? Do you have any easy suggestions for packaging them for freezing (that doesn’t involve plastic)?
Gracious! These look delicious and I’m excited to try them! Do you think this would work with lentils (maybe red?) equally well? My daughter is on GAPS and chickpeas aren’t allowed. I wonder also if this same soaking method would be adequate for GAPS (using lentils). Any thoughts?
Mmmm…I think I will make these. Thanks for posting.
This looks really good! I love chickpeas and we are trying to save money so I will try this as a lunch meal one day.
Thanks, Sarah! We LOVE garbanzos and falafel – and we used to be vegetarians. Can’t wait to try these.
Dear Sarah,
Being of Middle-Eastern descent, we LOVE falafel!!!! I soak/drain large batches of chickpeas and freeze them for convienent use later. Just thaw, grind and make patties… Traditional falafel is made in a recipe very similar to yours, except that we also add finely chopped cilantro to the mix… yummy!
What kind of sourdough buns do you use? We have always ate them with pita bread, but I have not been able to find yeast-free pita (unless I make it myself). So I love the idea of eating them with sourdough buns!!
YES! I do huge batches of chickpeas also. The recipe sounds time consuming but it really is not at all … being SMART with the time you spend in the kitchen is KEY.
There are a number of brands of decent sourdough buns out there. The WAPF Shopping Guide has a great list to use as a starting point. It’s only $1 so be sure to order one.
Hi Sarah, I really really like this recipe. The problem I had though is the balls falling apart. I could not get them to stick together as a ball or a patty. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong? It is so yummy! Thank you for any help you may be able give…
If you are having a lot of trouble with it sticking together, you can add 1 beaten egg to the recipe and this should do it. If you can’t do egg for allergy reasons, see my video on how to make a quick and easy egg substitute.
I emulsify a little coconut or olive oil into the paste while it’s in the food processor
It actually sounds pretty good! I bought a veggie burger at Whole Food once made out of soy and corn and it gave me the most terrible headache.
Yes, lots of MSG in those processed veggie burgers!
Definitely! And thats why I avoid anything with soy in it as that almost always means it has MSG, too.
Veggie Burgers! Chickpeas Gone Western http://t.co/C5weOci0