Fast veggie burgers with food processor

I recently invested in a new food processor, and I decided to go for the kingsize model. I learned the hard way that a small food processor really doesn't save you much time when you constantly need to be re-loading it.

A small one also is much noisier because it's working harder to get the job done. In the past, I always had to warn household members that I was about to launch the noise machine because otherwise, it could be quite startling. Even my feline pal, Pumpkin, would run for cover when I turned it on. Now, as you can see by the photo, above, Pumpkin could care less about my activities in the kitchen.


Fresh salsa was a snap with my new purchase, pictured left. Then, I decided to venture into making veggie burgers which has always been a time-consuming chore with my petite food processor. I picked a ton of fresh produce from my garden and decided to put the new machine to the test. Not counting the time taken to pick and wash the produce, it took me about 15 minutes to have the veggie burgers ready for the oven. In the past, I could plan on at least 45 minutes prep time.

My blog has taken a bit of a shift since I went from IBS/gluten-free/rotation diet to low carb/candida cleanse diet. I haven't been sharing many "carbilicious" recipes, although I continue to follow a gluten, dairy-free plan. But these veggie burgers are great because they will fit with any of these diets. Check out the recipe and directions below.



Fast Veggie Burgers

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked, drained beans ( I used pinto beans made from scratch but canned ones such as garbanzo, black or white beans will work.)

2 cups chopped veggies ( I used carrots, celery, red and green bell peppers, 2 medium zuchinis.)

1 small red onion, cut into chunks

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1 T. raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (no need to chop)

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 tsp. each dried tarragon and dill

1/2 tsp. salt and black pepper

1 tsp. ground flax seeds

1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean flour (You also can use any other mild-flavored gluten-free flour.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a pan with nonstick spray.

Throw everything except the flour in the food processor. (Previously, I had to chop the ingredients in batches.) Blend the ingredients until almost smooth. (This part was so cool especially working with such a large amount of ingredients.) Begin adding the flour and pulsing to combine. If the mixture is too wet, add a little more flour. (I was seriously impressed by how easily everything was mixed.)

Shape the mixture into about 12 large burgers and place on the sprayed cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, flip them and continue baking another 10 minutes until lightly browned on the other side. Extra burgers can be freezed.

Serve on gluten-free buns or flatbread or roll into a tortilla f you are not eating low carb. Or roll into a large lettuce leaf for low carbers. Try putting a little Thai red or green curry paste on top for a really zingy veggie burger.