For most of my pregnancy, I haven’t been able to eat the healthy food I normally would. The thought of drinking a smoothie or eating a salad turned my stomach. But thankfully, over the past few weeks, I’ve started to feel like myself again, and I’m happy to say I’ve been having at least a few smoothies a week and have also been cooking mostly healthy dinners.
What I love about smoothies is they pack a punch of nutrients. I fill mine up with both vegetables and fruit. One of my go-tos right now, because it seems apropos for the season, is peppermint cocoa (oat milk, medjool dates, cauliflower, blueberries, spinach, cocoa and peppermint oil), inspired by my good friend and wellness guru Caryn Sullivan of PrettyWellness.com.
But enough about smoothies, because this post is about VEGGIE BURGERS (!), which are another great way to get a TON of different vegetables in one helping. As I’ve learned from Dr. Joel Fuhrman of Eat to Live fame (a book I highly recommend reading if you haven’t already), it’s ideal to get nutrients from a multitude of plant sources in order to get a diverse array of vitamins/antioxidants/etc.
These veggie burgers also contain rolled oats, which help lower cholesterol and fill you up, as well as chick peas, which are high in fiber and protein. Hence, you’ll be giving your health a huge boost while also enjoying a delicious meal.
If you like easy, you’re in luck, because these veggie burgers are also so simple to make, and you can easily swap out/in vegetables of your choice to play with the flavor.
First, I add all of the ingredients to a Vitamix or food processor and blend. I like to leave a little bit of texture. You can do this by not fully blending the veggies, or by saving some chopped veggies and throwing them into the Vitamix towards the end of blending.
Then I scoop the burger dough into balls and place into a cast iron skillet with some heated coconut oil. Cook on each side until golden brown, and bake in the oven for a bit just to solidify a bit more.
I love serving these burgers on a bed of greens along with roasted potatoes, thinly sliced red onions, maybe some garbanzo beans, sliced mushrooms or whatever else you’d like to top it with. And of course, I slather the salad with my favorite cashew cream (you can find that recipe here).
So happy cooking, and don’t forget to drop me a line below to let me know what you think of these veggie burgers, or to share with me your favorite veggie burger recipe.
Ingredients
- 1/2 large red pepper
- 2 carrots
- 4 oz. mushrooms (1/2 container)
- 1/2 broccoli crown
- 1/4 red onion
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 can garbanzo beans
- 1 tbsp. no salt seasoning like Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash all produce and prep. Peel carrots and roughly chop any other large veggies to make them easier for them to blend.
Add all ingredients to a Vitamix or food processor and blend, leaving some texture to the vegetables. Alternatively, you can reserve a few pieces of each vegetable and throw into the Vitamix towards the end of blending in order to get a few chunks.
Heat a cast iron skillet or frying pan over medium heat and melt coconut oil in pan (since my pan is not nonstick, I use an ample amount).
Use a large spoon to scoop small balls of the mixture into the heated frying pan. Cook on each side until golden brown. Once cooked, transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. I find this step helps solidify the burgers a bit more.
The recipe will yield about 12 burgers. I typically serve two burgers on a salad.
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[…] a toddler’s diet. They’re easy to make homemade (check out my own veggie burger recipe here), but I also buy Dr. Praeger’s. I can’t say she loves veggie burgers, but she’ll […]