Vegetarian Burgers

I've made veggie burgers before, I typically make them with some combination of beans and grains with an egg to bind them. This week I got a recipe from Vegetarian Times on how to use oatmeal in new ways and this recipe was one of them. Since I never buy ground meat, but my kiddos like burgers, I thought I'd give it a try.

The reviews weren't good (shockingly not good in fact) but I still found myself wanting to try it. So I took what some of the reviewers said and changed up the process a little. This is what I came up with...


(picture from Vegetarian Times website)

Oatmeal Mushroom Burgers

4 cups water
3/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup bell peppers, diced
3 cups old fashioned oats (not the quick kind)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
12 oz mushrooms, diced finely
1 egg

Season the water up and bring to a boil (I used a combo of concentrated stock and spices), add the onion and peppers and boil for 5 minutes, lower heat to med. high and add the oats, flour and mushrooms. Simmer for 5 more minutes and remove from fire. Let it cool. At this point it should be the consistency of raw ground meat (or at least like raw meatloaf)...so I treated it as such...and I seasoned it until it tasted good. I used 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/8 cup of cocktail sauce and season salt. The great part is you can taste the mixture since it isn't raw meat! Season it the way you like until it tastes good. I added an egg at this point to bind it together (bc some of the reviews mentioned the burgers falling apart on them)

Make patties and place them on a greased cookie sheet. (The recipe says it makes 8, but my mixture made 12 pretty large patties) Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then flip them and cook an additional 10 minutes. You can eat them as-is, or let them cool and then grill them for a smoky flavor. I let them cool while I prepared other things and then put them on a hot skillet to reheat them and give them a nice crust. They came out great, a little softer than a regular burger...but I like that.

I was able to freeze the other 8 for 2 more future dinners...so 3 dinners for like $3 total. Now that fits in my budget, and the kids thought they were in heaven.