Sprout & Pea

After a long relax­ing week­end (spe­cial related shout out below), I wanted to start my Mon­day off right, so I chal­lenged myself to make a dish that I had once failed at prepar­ing prop­erly: white bean burg­ers. The first time around, I was con­vinced that I could make these with­out any kind of starchy bind­ing, and that an egg would be enough to hold the ingre­di­ents together– but alas, as the nicely formed pat­ties broke apart in my pan, I knew I had to give this another go. Enter one of my favorite ingre­di­ents for cookie mak­ing, quinoa flakes.

I had found a few recipes that called for rolled oats to form bean burg­ers, so I thought quinoa flakes would be a per­fect sub­sti­tute — and they in fact worked per­fectly! I added some shal­lots, chili pow­der and gar­lic pep­per into the mix for a lit­tle added fla­vor, but I knew that I needed a good sauce to make this burger spe­cial. Since I tend to put Greek Yogurt on just about every­thing these days, it was my first instinct for a fresh top­ping, so I mixed some up with some chopped scal­lions for a bit more fla­vor. I placed the burger and yogurt sauce on a toasted Ezekiel Eng­lish Muf­fin with some sliced tomato and some sprouts, squeezed a lit­tle lemon juice on top of it all and took a bite. To my sur­prise, this total impromptu exper­i­ment in mix­ing ingre­di­ents tasted deli­cious. This doesn’t require a lot of time or effort either. Here’s how I made these tasty and healthy burgers…

Makes 4 burg­ers
1 15 oz. can can­nellini beans (drain and dis­card liq­uid)
1 medium shal­lot chopped
1 tbsp. extra vir­gin olive oil
1 egg
2 cups quinoa flakes
1 tsp grape­seed oil
1 small con­tainer Greek yogurt (6 oz.)
3–4 scal­lions chopped (white parts only)
1 tsp. chili pow­der or other sea­son­ings to taste
Salt and pep­per to taste (I used gar­lic pep­per)
Ezekiel Eng­lish Muffins (or bun of your choice)
Tomato slices and sprouts or other top­pings of your choice — a lit­tle lemon juice squeezed over the burger adds a nice refresh­ing flavor

In a small pan, heat shal­lots and 1/​2 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat for about 5 min­utes or until shal­lots are translu­cent and soft. Remove from heat when done. In a food proces­sor com­bine can­nellini beans, shal­lots, egg and 1 cup of quinoa flakes (I wet the quinoa flakes with a lit­tle water first). Pulse until com­bined but don’t puree. Trans­fer into a bowl and mix in the rest of the dry quinoa flakes and grape­seed oil. Add sea­son­ings, salt and pep­per to taste. Place mix­ture in refrig­er­a­tor for about 10–15 min­utes to make sure it is nice and firm before form­ing burg­ers (I placed in freezer for 5 min­utes and it worked just fine).

Remove from refrigerator/​freezer and form burg­ers to desired size (they won’t shrink or expand). Add 1/​2 tbsp of olive oil to a medium pan and cook burg­ers on high heat — about 5 min­utes on each side. While they are cook­ing, com­bine Greek yogurt and chopped scal­lions in a small bowl. When burg­ers are done, serve on bun of your choice and top with Greek yogurt and scal­lion mix­ture and any top­pings you enjoy. Great with toma­toes and sprouts and a lit­tle lemon juice squeezed over the burger.

I have to fin­ish this post with a big con­grat­u­la­tions to my best friend who got mar­ried this week­end! The wed­ding was a danc­ing packed, happy tear filled blast. The bride was gor­geous, the groom was dap­per, and the cake was deli­cious! It was a won­der­ful week­end and I couldn’t be hap­pier for my best friend and her sweet as pie hus­band. My favorite detail was the Tupelo Honey jars on each table which was a play off of their first dance to the Van Moris­son song of the same name.