One afternoon I spent 135 hours making homemade veggie burgers.  It was a recipe from the July 2005 of Cook’s Illustrated and it was a long day’s journey into night, I’ll say that much.  You know what a fan I am of Cook’s but this recipe involved cooking lentils, cooking bulgar, sauteing vegetables, sauteing mushrooms, processing cashews in the food processor, all done separately and each requiring its own pan and baking sheet for cooling, as well as mountains of paper towels, strainers, bowls, spoons, spatulas, etc.  And then you still had to cook the damn burgers. 

And for all that, they weren’t significantly better than a Boca Burger.  Frankly, there isn’t a veggie burger in the world that would justify an entire afternoon in the kitchen and an hour’s worth of dishes.

So I was beyond excited at the simplicity of Gwyneth’s recipe: saute onion, garlic and cumin, add salt, pepper, beans and pre-cooked brown rice (miraculously all executed in one pan), mash a bit, let cool, form into burgers, dust with a little flour, and saute again in the same pan. 

And they were great!  Of course, I buttered the buns and toasted them in the veggie fond but still, they were very, very tasty and so straightforward.  You can use whatever condiments or variations you usually use with your burgers, or dream up some new ones.  Delicious in their own right, they are also a great blank canvas for your preferences and imagination.

I can’t find this recipe online and I’m hoping to get permission to reprint some of the recipes from the book on my site so, until then, I’ll have to leave you hanging!