Quinoa Cauliflower Burgers

The original recipe was actually given to me by a friend who made a vegan version. I wasn’t very patient in mashing the ingredients properly together, so I added two eggs to make the burgers less falling-apart-ish. Also the original has less seasoning and ingredients and instead of cauliflower it has courgette. But ok, this is how I made them and now kind of prefer them. In the future, when I have more patience, I will try the vegan version. I will probably make it my own again and definitely share it with you.

This recipe is only for the patties. You can prepare the whole burger with bun in your own preferred way. I made mine with whole grain buns, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, cheese, lettuce, slices of tomato and a fried egg on top.
Enjoy!

Headnotes

Servings: ± 6 big burgers or 12 mini’s
Ready in: ± 60 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup of quinoa
500 grams of cauliflower
3 medium sized carrots
1 onion
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg powder
¼ teaspoon of mustard powder
2 pinches of salt (about ¼ of a teaspoon)
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
3 cloves of garlic
2 beaten eggs
1 cup of bread crumps
Sunflower oil (for cooking the burgers in)

Directions

Start by cooking the quinoa first. 1 cup of quinoa equals 1 cup of water to boil it in. Cut 2 cloves of garlic in small pieces and add these with 1 pinch of salt to the quinoa. The quinoa will be done in about 20 minutes.
In the meantime the quinoa is cooking you can start mincing the cauliflower, onion, the last clove of garlic and grate the carrots. Mix the minced and grated vegetables, the nutmeg powder, mustard powder and garlic powder together and cook this for 1 to 2 minutes on a medium high fire.
Turn off the fire, let the mixture cool off for 1 minute and then add the quinoa and the 2 beaten eggs. Mix everything well together.
Divide the mixture into six. Lightly wet your hands. Carefully roll the mixture into balls, each about the size of a tennis ball. For twelve mini burgers, you can just split these balls in two. Place each in the palm of your hand and gently squeeze down to flatten them into patties about 3cm thick.
Spread the breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat each burger in breadcrumbs by placing them first on one side and then turning them on the other. There is no need in dipping the patties in egg first, which is usual when using breadcrumbs. The patties are sticky enough for the breadcrumbs not to fall off.
Put a layer of oil of 1 cm in a frying pan and put it on a medium high fire to warm up for 1 minute. Place the burgers in the pan and fry them on a smaller flame. Bake till crust is brown.
Place the burgers on a paper toweled plate for the excessive oil to soak in. It will maintain the crisp too. The burgers are now ready to prepare as wished, with or without bun.