Vegan Chickpea Quinoa Burgers with Lemon and Thyme (Gluten Free)



Summer is here and it’s the perfect time to be enjoying outdoor barbecues and picnics. Everyone wants to enjoy a freshly grilled hamburger or veggie burger. But making your own is quite easy and insanely tasty without using oils or refined soy products. My chickpea quinoa burgers are soy-free, nut-free and gluten-free so they will work for everyone no matter how they eat. If you’ve ever made homemade hamburgers or wanted to, you can make these.

A simple food processor is such a versatile tool for making your own chickpea quinoa burgers. Mine isn’t anything fancy, just a basic mid sized one and it’s perfect for pulsing various ingredients to use in veggie burgers.



I like to top my veggie burgers with some fresh hummus (see my chickpea hummus here or my yam/sweet potato hummus here), sautéed mushrooms and onions (I use a little soy sauce and maple syrup to flavor them), lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Cucumbers also work well in place of tomatoes for this chickpea quinoa burger as well as spicy mustard.

Find a nice whole grain bun or roll, toast the insides and top your veggie burger with all your favorite toppings. I also highly recommend some of my Summer salad recipes to go along with it such as Avocado Dill Potato SaladStrawberry Spinach Salad, Shaved Asparagus SaladCosta Rican Cabbage Salad, Sweet and Savory Asian Salad, or Rock my Broccoli Salad. So now that your head is spinning with delicious Summer recipes let’s get grillin’! Mmm hmm.



Vegan Chickpea Quinoa Burgers with Lemon and Thyme

 
Makes 10-12 patties (depending on size)

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed yam/sweet potato, cooled (1 medium yam, cooked)
4 cloves garlic
3/4 cup chopped red onion
2 cans chickpeas, drained and patted dry
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (stems removed)
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled (I used 1/2 cup dry mix of white and red)
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp Herbamare or salt *or to taste

Directions:

1. Poke holes in your yam and bake at 400 F for an hour or until tender inside. Set aside until cool.

2. Cook quinoa with a 1:1 ratio of vegetable broth or water in a pressure cooker or on the stove. (See my directions here)

3. In a food processor, add the garlic and onion and pulse until chopped finely. Add the chickpeas, thyme, lemon zest and juice and pulse until chopped and well combined. Scoop out flesh from yam (discard peel) and to food processor along with quinoa, pepper and salt. Pulse until well combined.

4. Form into equal sized balls and place on a non stick sheet or plate lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate until needed.

5. Pre heat a pan or barbecue and press patties gently until slightly flatted and cook for 4-5 minutes per side, flipping once. Be careful to move gently so they don’t fall apart.

6. Serve on buns or lettuce wraps. (I find using a bun slightly bigger than the patty works best as they will squish a bit when eaten.

7. Store any patties in an air tight container and refrigerate or freeze until needed. (Leaving them uncooked is best).

Variations:

You can also use fresh dill instead of thyme if you wish for variety.

Also check out my Smoky Yam Black Bean Burger Recipe.

Have you ever made your own veggie burgers? What do you like to top your burgers with?

Fat Free Vegan Greek Rice Stuffed Peppers Recipe



I have done A LOT of travelling in the past few years (visiting over 30 countries around the world), and Greece was one of my favorite places I visited. (Greek rice stuffed peppers were a favorite I found) Greece was pretty incredible and unexpected as I had never seen anything other than photos of ancient ruins or the white and blue houses of Mykonos on postcards. I went on a 2 1/2 week journey back in August and September of 2010 and visited many different places in Greece.

I saw the ruins of Athens, the rocky shorelines and picturesque houses of Mykonos, the rolling hills and mountains of Naxos, The Palace of the Grand Masters of Knights in Rhodes, the mesmerizing Balos Lagoon and Palace of Knossos on Crete, and the Tholos of Athena Pronaia Sanctuary and Oracle at Delphi.

I also took a ton of photos and wrote about that journey here. (I wrote about it on an old blog of mine and have moved it to this one). So if you are a travel bug like me or just love gorgeous landscape photography definitely check it out!



In my time in Greece I learned that there was much more than just olive oil and seafood to Greek cuisine. Traditionally the Greeks and Cretans ate vegetables, grains, fruits, seafood and olives. In fact their diet was vastly healthier eating homemade unprocessed food, unlike what they do now (which is more like a SAD Westernized diet drenched in copious amounts of olive oil and wine).

So what I took from my travels was using vegetables, grains and herbs in a way that complimented each other to bring out the full flavor of simple vegetable based dishes. The Greek rice stuffed peppers served in Greece are generally stuffed with ground meat as well, but occasionally I found some that were vegan without meat. Mykonos served some at the beach cafes and a Taverna in Delphi had some as well. But these versions used white arborio rice (Italian risotto rice) and were drenched in olive oil.



For my version I decided to switch to whole grain brown rice and remove the olive oil (for health purposes dousing all vegetables in olive oil isn’t recommended). So while it’s not “traditional” it is still very rustic and delicious. I’ve packed it full of dill, parsley and lemon juice so you get all the flavor of the full fat version but without the extra calories.

This recipe is featured in my cookbook Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World which is available in a digital or physical version wherever you are in the world.

In fact it’s probably my family’s favorite recipe, my mom and even my friends make this recipe regularly as an entree for omnivores and they always receive rave reviews. So it makes me happy that something so simple can be delicious and satisfying to people on a wide variety of diets.

So scroll down for the recipe and get cooking!



Fat Free Vegan Greek Rice Stuffed Peppers Recipe

When I traveled in Greece I sampled several vegan versions of stuffed vegetables. Greek rice stuffed peppers was one of my favorites. I switched out the traditional Arborio rice for brown rice to make this a whole grain version. If you like the combination of lemon and dill, you’re going to love these.
Prep Time: 30 min Total Time: 1 hour 20 min

Yield:Serves 3-4 for entrées or 6-8 as a side dish

Ingredients

6 large or 8 small bell peppers (any color but green)
1 large onion, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 small zucchinis, peeled and diced
1 cup / 236 ml. low sodium vegetable broth
3 cups cooked brown rice (or other rice or grain of choice)
5 Tbsp. tomato paste
3/4 cup whole fresh parsley, de-stemmed and chopped
3/4 cup whole fresh dill, de-stemmed and chopped
Half to a full lemon, juiced (depending on how lemony you like it)
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
3/4 tsp. Herbamare or Sea salt (or to taste)
1 lemon—cut into wedges (optional for garnish)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F /175 C. Cut tops off of peppers like you would a jack-o-lantern,
    remove seeds, and wash thoroughly.
  2. Place in an oven safe dish arranged upright and put tops back on. Bake for 30 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, in a large pan, saut. onions, carrots and zucchini in vegetable broth for 5-6 minutes.
  4. Stir in the rice and tomato paste and coat thoroughly.
  5. Add parsley, dill, lemon juice, pepper, and Herbamare or salt and stir to combine.
  6. When peppers are ready, remove from oven and fill with stuffing.
  7. Place tops back on peppers and bake for an extra 30-40 minutes until peppers are soft.
  8. Serve additional wedges of lemon if desired.

Additional Tips:

I don’t suggest using green peppers. Green peppers are actually an unripe pepper and much firmer. They will not be done in time if you cook them along with red, yellow or orange peppers. To freeze: cut them in half lengthwise and freeze in airtight containers or freezer bags and lay gently in the freezer until frozen. Due to the rice these are best eaten within 3 days, please freeze any leftovers if you won’t finish them within that time. Rice can grown bacteria in a moist environment so it’s best eaten freshly cooked or reheated from frozen. Enjoy!

Variations:

If you don’t like the taste or texture of brown rice, you can use white rice or quinoa instead. Try different vegetables too, you can dice up mushroms, asparagus, celery or greens instead if you don’t have carrots or zucchini on hand.

Nutrition Facts: 6 Servings

Amount Per Serving

  • Calories 170.9
  • Total Fat 1.4 g
  • Saturated Fat 0.3 g
  • Sodium 325.7 mg
  • Total Carbohydrate 37.1 g
  • Dietary Fiber 5.6 g
  • Sugars 3.6 g
  • Protein 4.4 g
For more delicious Oil-Free and Low Fat Plant Based Recipes, check out my new cookbook Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World:

                          On Sale $21.95 plus shipping!

Or get the Ebook version for $17.95 to download and read now!

Have you ever made stuffed peppers before? What are your favorite ingredients?

Lebanese Tahini Sauce For Falafels



I love making homemade dips and sauces! I find them SO much more flavorful than the store bought ones.  The other day I made some baked falafels I bought from Trader Joe’s and I wanted some tasty tahini sauce to serve them with. This is the dip I came up with. It would also be delicious to serve some taboulli salad with your tahini dip and falafels as well.

photo from WhatsGoodAtTraderJoes

You can also use this as a spread for pita wraps/sandwiches, to dip pita in, crackers, veggies, chips, etc. It tastes a little like hummus but without the chickpeas.

Tahini Dip For Falafels

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
2 cloves of garlic
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Serve with falafel, veggies or pita.

Have you ever had tahini dip before? What do you like to serve it with?

(Oil-Free) Low Fat Vegan Chickpea Hummus Recipe



Ah hummus! The classic Mediterranean staple dip (and staple of many vegan sandwich lovers). I usually always make my own hummus at home as the store-bought ones are #1 usually expensive for the amount you get, and #2 have a lot of oil and salt in them and make each tablespoon higher calorie than necessary.

Hummus is basically cooked chickpeas, pureed with tahini (sesame seed butter), garlic, lemon, salt and sometimes olive oil. Babaghanoush (Eggplant Hummus) is very similar but it has roasted eggplant in it for a slightly different flavour. If you’ve never seen tahini before it’s generally in the nut butter/peanut butter section of the health food store, or some grocery stores. Tahini also available at ethnic markets and Indian and Middle Eastern stores. You can also find tahini on Amazon.



If you’ve made your own homemade hummus before you probably use olive oil in it too, but I want to show you a way to make a much lower fat hummus that is great if you REALLY like hummus and put it on everything. This way you’ll cut out excess calories you won’t even miss and still get that delicious creamy hummus flavour.

So I got into the kitchen and made this chickpea hummus using canned chickpeas, as that’s what most of you are going to do. (I use the salt free variety.) BUT you are more than welcome to use fresh cooked chickpeas. I prefer them and cook them with some kombu (seaweed) and bay leaves to give them a delicious flavour.

If you’re into really decadent high fat dips, you should try switching to my hummus recipe to have a new better for you dip to serve to your friends and family with fresh pita, veggies or chips.

For this recipe you’re going to need a food processor. I use an 8 cup Cuisinart that I bought in Costa Rica (when I lived there) and it’s not a recent model or anything but it does the job. A hand crank food processor will probably not be good enough as this is quite a thick dip. You can get a basic Hamilton Beach food processor fairly cheap on Amazon like this one.



BTW this recipe is featured in my Vegan Comfort Foods From Around the World recipe ebook. So check it out! It’s got over 60 deliciously savory and satisfying recipes you’re going to love!



(Oil-Free) Low Fat Vegan Chickpea Hummus

From Comfort Foods From Around The World 

Ingredients:

1 15 oz./425 g can chickpeas (no salt) or 1 3/4 cup of fresh cooked chickpeas
1-2 small cloves of garlic (depending on how spicy you like it)
1 1/2 tbsp filtered water (this is replacing the oil)
3-4 tbsp lemon juice (depending on how lemony you like it)
1 1/2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter)
1/4 tsp Herbamare (original) or salt (or none if you are using salted canned chickpeas)
Fresh ground pepper to taste *optional

Directions:

  1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas (only drain if fresh cooked) and set aside.
  2. Add the garlic clove(s) to the food processor and pulse until chopped up. Stop the food processor.
  3. Add the chickpeas, filtered water, lemon juice (start with less and add more if desired) and pulse the chickpeas until they are fairly broken up. Depending on how strong your food processor is when they are broken up you can let it run for a few seconds or just keep pulsing until it’s a little smooth. Stop the food processor. Taste test and add more lemon if desired.
  4. Add the tahini, Herbamare (if desired) and a little fresh ground pepper. Let it run until everything is creamed up. Taste test and adjust any additional salt, pepper, lemon or water (for consistency). Your hummus should be creamy with no chunks left.
  5. Serve with veggies, pita or baked chips if desired.



Generally people will not be able to tell there is no oil in this dip. It will be creamy and tangy, it will just seem lighter and fluffier to them. Skipping the oil in recipes is a great way to trim that waist line and satisfy your desire for savory dishes without the guilt!

Do you like hummus? What do you serve it with? Have you ever made oil free hummus before?