Veggie Burgers bought from the supermarket aren’t always that tasty. For the best meat-free burgers, we say make them at home – they’re super yummy, nice and healthy and a lot cheaper than the shop-bought alternative!
You can make your own versions at home which can be frozen and then oven-cooked from frozen as needed. They can all be served with dips or as a filling for pittas, flatbreads or wraps. It is good to add a vegetable of some kind- mashed squash, carrot or sweet potato work really well- you can mash these from boiled or roasted vegetables.
Ingredients
- 400g tin chickpeas or beans.
We suggest borlotti, kidney or butterbeans.
Make sure you drain them out of the tin and give them a rinse under the tap.
- 300g (10½ oz) cooked, mashed vegetables.
Try carrot, squash, potato, sweet potato or parsnip
- 1 garlic clove.
Ask an adult to crush one clove with a garlic press
- 1 tablespoon of sunflower, vegetable or olive oil
- A squeeze of lemon juice
- A pinch of ground cumin, coriander, paprika or mild chilli flakes.
Some of these add spice as well as flavour, so be careful how much you add!
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of tahini
This one’s optional, so don’t worry if you don’t have any in the cupboard!
- 4 tablespoons of sesame seeds, breadcrumbs or crushed crackers
These are for coating – so they’re optional.
Method
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Adult’s job: Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
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Kid’s job: Mash the beans or chickpeas as much as you can either with a potato masher in a bowl or with a hand mixer (supervised). Alternatively you could make the mix in a food processor if you have one.
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Kid’s job: Add the mashed vegetables and garlic and any herbs, spices or tahini that you want to use.
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Kid’s job: Mix well and the kids can taste and add lemon juice, spices or pepper to their taste.
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Kid’s job: The mixture then needs to be rolled into four burger-sized balls with wet hands, or make 12 smaller “falafels” – kids have the perfect sized hands for this. Flatten the balls slightly. If you like, you can coat them with sesame seeds, crushed crackers or breadcrumbs for extra crunch.
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Kid’s job: Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on a baking tray and place the “falafels” or bean burgers on top and then turn them all over so that they have a coating of a little oil on each side.
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Adult’s job: Place the baking tray in the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes, turning the burgers over midway through cooking. Allow to cool a little before serving.
Top Tip:
You can freeze the burgers uncooked and then bake them from frozen. This will take about 45 minutes for baking at 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Variations to try: carrots or sweet potato with chickpeas, cumin and sesame seeds; carrot with butterbeans and chopped parsley; squash with kidney beans, chopped coriander and ground cumin; parsnips and borlotti beans with chives and paprika.
