Vegetarian burgers are a tasty egg-free dish, to be served as an appetizer, side dish, main course, or snack, with a soft texture, easy and customizable according to tastes. They will appeal to children who generally do not like to eat vegetables and greens, and to all those who love healthy, 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, as well as delicate, Parmesan sauce that blends perfectly with the ingredients and spices contained in our vegetarian burgers. Also, using gluten-free and lactose-free ingredients, this recipe can also be made by those with specific dietary needs.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 9
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 17.5 oz red potatoes
- 8.8 oz 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)
- 1.3 cups milk (also lactose-free)
- 0.35 oz cornstarch (maizena)
- to taste nutmeg
Steps
Boil the potatoes with their skins on and, once cooked, peel them, put them in a bowl, mash them, and let them cool.
In the meantime, wash, trim the ends of the zucchini, and cut them into very small cubes to mix with the cold potato puree.
Chop the sun-dried tomatoes, grind 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, we can add 2 or 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. If there are specific dietary needs, we can use rice flour or gluten-free breadcrumbs or chickpea flour. Mix again and start forming our vegetarian burgers.
In a bowl, put some breadcrumbs (or rice flour).
1) Take a portion of the mixture equal to about 100 grams (3.5 oz), roughly round it, put it in the breadcrumbs, and with the help of your hands, press and shape it into a classic burger with a thickness of one and a half fingers.
2) Place the burgers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the baking sheet with the burgers in the coldest part of the fridge for at least one hour. This will give our burgers time to solidify and absorb flavors; additionally, they will better hold their shape during cooking.
3) After the resting time in the fridge, preheat the oven to 428°F.
4) When the oven is ready, bake the vegetarian burgers in the middle rack for about 20 minutes. Broil them for a few minutes to finish.
Prepare the Parmesan sauce, while the burgers cook.
Heat the milk in a saucepan; when hot, add the cornstarch.
With a steel whisk, mix until the milk appears thickened (it will take about 5-7 minutes over low heat). Salt, turn off, move away from the heat, and add the Parmesan and optional spices, continuing to stir.
Keep the sauce warm if you want to use it warm, but it’s also delicious cold. The warm sauce will have a more fluid consistency; cold, it will be firmer.
Remove the vegetarian burgers from the oven and serve them garnished with the Parmesan sauce.
