In honor of Memorial Day and the beginning of summer celebrations I felt inspired to make some veggie burgers. I hope you enjoy! Veggie Burgers:
2 med/large eggplant
3 medium yellow onions
8 cloves garlic, peeled
Olive oil
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
5-6 cups rolled oats
4 carrots, grated
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Sea salt, to taste
Cayenne, to taste
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cut your eggplant into roughly 1" cubes. Toss with a generous amount of sea salt and set in colander to drain over the sink or another bowl for about 15 minutes. The eggplant will breakdown a bit and release liquid. Slice up your onions and toss with the eggplant, 8 cloves of garlic and a generous amount of olive oil to coat. Throw the mixture into the oven on a couple of baking sheets. Cook for about 30 minutes until soft and onions are clear, but not browned.
Bring 1-1/2 cups of water to boil then turn off the heat. Toss in the sun-dried tomatoes, cover, and set aside to soften.
In a food processor process the oats until broken down then set aside. In batches, process the cooked eggplant, onion, and garlic mixture with the softened sundried tomatoes, and the grated carrots.
Put the processed vegetables in a large mixing bowl, add the sesame seeds and slowly add the processed oats until mixture is sticky and able to form into patties (you may not need all the oats). At this point add some sea salt and cayenne until you reach a desired taste. Then form into patties, remembering that they won't shrink when cooked, so form them to size you want.
Cook on a grill or grill pan until they are slightly firm and cooked on both sides. I like them to still be soft in the middle. The longer you cook them, the more dried out they'll be. Makes 12-15 patties depending on the size. Once they're cooked you can serve them or freeze them for later. A summer fave! And don't worry if you hate eggplant, it doesn't matter. I have served MANY people these burgers who hated eggplant and they loved them. :)
