Every Canada Day or Labour Day, we have our annual neighborhood block party. We get permission from the city to shut the street off to traffic, and we haul lawn furniture and BBQs out into the street. The neighborhood kids and dogs enjoy the sudden freedom to ride bikes and run on the street, while everyone else enjoys a potluck, catches up, and BBQs a wide variety of goodies. It’s a lovely neighborhood tradition—I highly recommend it.
These are the veggie burgers I whipped up for this year’s block party. They are delicious. Smokey, chewy, flavourful, and fantastic. They’re also packed with nutrition from the chia seeds and the whole grains (bulgur & buckwheat). Did you know that buckwheat is a seed (and not at all related to wheat)? It’s actually related to rhubarb. It’s rich in iron and manganese, and it’s gluten free.
The smokey flavours come from smoked paprika (hot & sweet), chipotle, and Spirit of Africa seasoning. Yum. Soy sauce and nutritional yeast really round out the flavour with great, savory depth. Your choice of nuts and seeds provide a great dose of protein and healthy fats.
And the best endorsement of all? Feed these burgers to a meat eater and they’ll actually be pretty impressed (I speak from experience here!).
Smokey Bulgur & Buckwheat Veggie Burgers
¾ cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp nutritional yeast2/3 cup bulgur, rinsed
1/3 cup buckwheat, rinsed & toasted
¼ cup chia seeds1½ cups nuts and seeds of choice
1 jumbo garlic clove, minced
1 chipotle pepper, minced
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp thyme leaves
½ tsp Spirit of Africa seasoning3 eggs, beaten
Bring the water, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, bulgur, and buckwheat to a boil. Cover, remove from the heat, and let sit until the mixture comes to room temperature.
Blitz the nuts and seeds, garlic, chipotle, spices, and herbs together in a food processor until you have a rough mixture that is roughly the same texture as the cooked bulgur & buckwheat.
Mix the two parts together, and mash in the eggs. Cover with clingfilm and let sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours to let the flavours meld.
To cook, form into ½” thick patties (I like using a circular biscuit cutter as a mould). Cook in an oiled frying pan over medium-low heat, for about 3 minutes per side, until golden and a bit crispy around the edges.
Serve on a bun with all your favourite burger toppings!
I think this sounds devine – problem is there are so many of us that live miles from any store, and don’t have all these fancy ingredients – it would probably take me months to gather up everything that this recipe calls for – this doesn’t just go for you, but to all the different sites that I subscribe to – also, can’t I just print out the recipe and not all the pictures, comments, etc.? Thanks – Patti near Yosemite, CA
Patti, I just highlight and choose “print selection” or cut and paste to a word processor if I can’t find a printer-friendly or text-only option. Maybe that would work?
Thanks for the tip, Dawn!
Patti—Have you tried ordering some of the fancier spices and ingredients online? I know grocery ordering is quite popular in the UK, and for things like spices, it seems like it would be easy enough as they are both lightweight and dry.
As for printing, other than Dawn’s recommendation, you could just copy the recipe and paste it into Word, and then print that.
Thanks for reading, as always 😀
Wow. This recipe sounds fantastic. I just cooked up a pot of buckwheat and was playing with some ideas when I thought I’d check out what other folks are doing to make buckwheat burgers. My buckwheat is cooked already so I’ll give it a go with adding the soy and nutritional yeast and see if the flavors still meld together. I’m thinking it might be better to avoid boiling the yeast anyway to preserve it’s vitality and nutritional qualities. Can’t wait to try this. mmmmn!
Yum! How did they go? I still have one left in my freezer… I’m thinking I may need to pull it out and have a veggie burger night soon 🙂