Vegetarian burgers are a tasty dish without eggs, to serve as an appetizer, side dish, main course, or snack, with a soft texture, easy and customizable to taste. They will appeal to children who generally do not like to eat vegetables and to all those who love healthy and light foods without sacrificing taste. We can pair these delicious vegetarian burgers with exquisite and easy sauces, or we can prepare a quick and tasty yet delicate parmesan sauce that goes perfectly with the ingredients and spices contained in our vegetarian burgers. Additionally, by using gluten-free and lactose-free ingredients, this recipe can also be made by those with specific dietary needs.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 9
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 500 g red potatoes
- 250 g zucchini
- 5 sun-dried tomatoes
- to taste grated fresh scallion
- 1/4 teaspoon curry
- to taste fine salt
- 2 tablespoons grated pecorino cheese
- to taste ground pepper
- to taste breadcrumbs (also gluten-free or rice flour)
- 300 ml milk (also lactose-free)
- 10 g cornstarch (maizena) also gluten-free
- to taste nutmeg
Steps
Boil the potatoes with the skin on, and once cooked, peel them, place them in a bowl, mash them with a potato masher, and let them cool.
In the meantime, wash, trim the ends of the zucchini, and dice them into very small cubes to add to the cooled potato puree.
Chop the sun-dried tomatoes, crush the pepper, grate or finely chop the onion, and add everything to the potato and zucchini mixture. Also, add the other spices, salt to taste, and mix until you get a homogeneous mixture. The final consistency should be soft and easy to work with. If the mixture is too soft, you can add 2 or 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. If there are specific dietary needs, you can use rice flour or gluten-free breadcrumbs or chickpea flour. Mix again and start forming our vegetarian burgers.
Place some breadcrumbs (or rice flour) in a bowl.
1) Take an amount of mixture equivalent to about 100 grams, roughly shape it, place it in the breadcrumbs, and with the help of your hands, press and shape them into a classic hamburger with a thickness of about one and a half fingers.
2) Place the burgers on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Place the tray with the burgers in the coldest part of the fridge for at least an hour. It will give our burgers time to firm up and absorb flavors; they will also hold their shape better during cooking.
3) After the resting time in the fridge, turn on the oven and bring it to 428°F.
4) When the oven is ready, bake the vegetarian burgers, at mid-height, for about 20 minutes. Grill them for a few minutes for a nice finish.
Prepare the parmesan sauce, while the burgers are cooking.
Heat the milk in a saucepan; when it’s hot, add the cornstarch.
Use a steel whisk to stir until the milk thickens (it will take about 5-7 minutes, on low heat). Salt, turn off the heat, move away from the stove, and add the parmesan and optional spices, continuing to stir.
Keep the sauce warm if you want to use it hot, but it is also delicious cold. The hot sauce will have a more fluid consistency; cold, it will be thicker.
Take the vegetarian burgers out of the oven and serve them garnished with the parmesan sauce.
