Tuscan White Bean Burger – veggies with an Italian flair

See my new pile? I am having so much fun leafing through every page, dreaming of all the great meals. One thing I can easily say about eating vegetarian/vegan….the choices are ENDLESS! Seriously.  I feel like my life used to revolve around boneless skinless chicken breasts.  No longer. I'm free!

I served my burgers with grilled portabella mushrooms.

Anyway, this burger comes from another new book for me,  “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way,” by Lukas Volger, which I was fortunate to download for $1.99 a few months ago on my Kindle. The worst thing about a cookbook on the Kindle is the sad fact that you can't mark every other page with a post-it. I do love me some post-its.

I have zeroed in on about 5 burgers that I must try! Quinoa Spinach burger was the first recipe I tried, and I could tell the book was high quality because the recipe was flawless and the burger ….. perfect! Volger suggests to fry the burgers first and then to bake them for 10 minutes or so – genius!

Here’s what you need:

1 onion

2 T olive oil

1 head garlic

1 can cannellini beans

1 egg (or vegan substitution)

½ C Kalamata olives, chopped

Lemon juice

½ C bread crumbs

Pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

Slice the onions in rings and sauté in a bit of oil. This could take up to 30 minutes. Make sure they are golden, soft, perfectly browned.

Separate the cloves of garlic and remove most of the papery skins. Leave one layer of skin on. Massage the cloves in olive oil and roast them at 300 degrees for about 20 – 30 minutes. When the largest clove is easily pierced with a knife, they are ready. They should slip right out of their skins.

In food processor: ½ C beans, all the garlic, half the onions, the eggs, and the lemon juice. Blend together until you have a nice paste. Mash the remaining beans with a fork or potato masher. Mix everything together. Form 4 patties. Fry in olive until brown on both sides. Transfer to a preheated oven (350 degrees) and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

I served these with roasted tomatoes, but they would be killer with a simple arugula salad, or some pesto. A squeeze of lemon to finish them would be nice also. 

(printable recipe)

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