Veggie burgers

If I had to pick just one meal to eat over and over again for he rest of my life, it might very well be the veggie burger from Northstar. I've never thought of myself as a veggie burger girl (actually I didn't eat red meat either until I was pregnant with Creed), but on my first trip to Northstar i decided to branch out at try to Northstar burger. I figured if the restaurant put their name on it, they must be proud of it. Oh, was I pleasantly surprised. It's healthy and delicious.

Photo via jslander

Well, you know that I'm a cooking novice so it didn't even occur to me to try to make my own veggie burger at home until Cat made some this weekend and shared her recipe with me. Monday night, Larry had corn on the cob and watermelon for dinner, but our fridge was empty so I decided to try to cook veggie burgers on my own.

Start with a can of kidney beans (Cat says that black beans would work too). Drain it and rinse. Put it in a bowl with 1/4 cup of oatmeal, one egg, and seasoning salt to taste (I had no idea what that meant so I just put in 1 tsp and Larry added a dash more and that seemed to work well). Mash it all up with a potato-masher until it sticks together. I know it's not exactly lovely, but don't be worried. Let it sit for ten minutes or so to let the flavors meld.

Then form them into patties and put them directly into a skillet with a little olive oil in it and cook. They'll be sticky and kind of hard to form into patties, but it will work and they won't stick. We made four burgers using one can of kidney beans. Just as they finished cooking, we put a slice of provolone cheese over them, but I'm sure any cheese that you like would work as well.

Then just dress them up like a regular burger, the more you add the better it will be. I loved pickles on it and Larry says you have to have onions. We didn't even have hamburger buns so we put them on whole wheat bread and I didn't take a picture of the final product.

The end result? We both thought they were really good! The best part is that it's so easy and quick to make, but they are good for you and it's a good recipe to fall back on when you don't have any food in the house because it's easy to scrounge up a can of beans and an egg. I thought it was worth sharing since I'm always looking for good, simple dinners.

Thank you so much for the recipe Cat! I wish I had her ability for improv cooking. I don't know how she does it.