Veggie Burger #2


In trying to come up with "how to use the oats in your pantry" ideas that weren't breakfast-y, I discovered that you can use oats in veggie burgers. So, this was my first experience making some. Here's the recipe I used:

Oat Veggie Burgers
2/3 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (or any nut)
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup water

Mix the ingredients together (in a food processor works best) and season to taste (with garlic, salt and pepper). Shape into 6 burgers and fry until brown.

The food processor was an indispensable tool - first for grating the carrots. Then for chopping the other vegetables.(Note to self: it's not a smart idea to stick your hand in a bowl that has sharp edges exposed. Add food a little at a time through the feeder chute.) The mixture looked way too liquid-y (maybe my carrots, onion and celery stalks were larger than normal), so I added twice the amount of oats and omitted the water.

Because of the bandaid on my finger, I didn't feel like forming patties, so I tried two different methods to cook them, and both worked. One was to ladle a spoonful into the frying pan (using a dab of flavored olive oil to keep it from sticking - Yum!), flattening it a bit into a circle, and frying it like a regular burger. The other method was to place all of the "dough" on a greased cookie sheet and spread it out into a large rectangle about 1/2" thick (drizzling it with the yummy olive oil). Then bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. Remove the pan and, using a pizza cutter, cut it into 3" squares, flip them over, and return them to the oven for another 15-20 minutes. That worked also.
We decided that barbecue sauce was the perfect condiment. The two independent comments(child #1 ate while child #2 was at play practice, and then child #1 took a nap while child #2 ate) from the teenage taste-testers were, "That was interesting. I'd eat that without complaining if that's all the choice I had." High praise indeed!

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