I can’t remember why I bought mushrooms, but I had a bunch left over and didn’t want to chance wasting them. This recipe popped out from the June 2016 pages of Good Housekeeping, and I put it right to good use.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a38846/mushroom-quinoa-burger-recipe/
Ingredients
- 4 medium portobello mushroom caps (about 1 lb.), gills removed, chopped
- 1/2 c. walnuts
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tbsp. canola oil
- 1/4 c. Chopped red onion
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 2 tsp. rice wine vinegar
- 1 c. cooked quinoa
- 1/2 c. cornstarch
- Whole-grain burger buns
- sprouts
- Lettuce
- Sliced tomatoes
- 1/2 c. mayonnaise
- 1 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- Kosher salt
Directions
- Make the Burgers: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In 3-quart, shallow baking dish, toss mushrooms with walnuts, garlic, 1 tablespoon oil, 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper; spread in even layer. Bake 20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Set aside to cool. Turn oven off.
- In food processor, pulse mushroom mixture, red onion, green onions, and vinegar until mostly smooth, scraping side of bowl if necessary. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in quinoa and cornstarch until well-blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheet with foil. Form mixture into 5 patties (about 1/2″ thick and 3″ wide). In a 12″ nonstick skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil on medium. In 2 batches, cook patties 5 minutes or until well-browned, turning over once. Transfer seared patties to prepared baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until hot in centers.
- Make the Rosemary Mayo: Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise, rosemary, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Keeps up to 5 days, refrigerated.
- Serve burgers on buns with Rosemary Mayo, garnished with sprouts, lettuce, and tomato.
I made a few adjustments to this recipe. I know we didn’t have walnuts in the house, so I’m pretty sure I used cashews (considering I only made this a little over a week ago, I’m a little worried that I don’t remember). I used baby portobellos and didn’t remove the gills. I was super annoyed that the mixture had to refrigerate for 2 hours (see step 2), but our fridge is set to 34°, so I moved on to step 3 after 90 minutes.
I cooked the burgers on the stovetop instead of moving them to the oven. They were soft and wet– I wore food service gloves to form them, and I was able to make 6 patties. Be sure your pan is really hot before you start! Our second batch (I cooked them 3 at a time) was much more browned than the first batch. We didn’t have fresh rosemary for the mayo, so we ended up using a dill crema (Husband) and a chipotle mayo (me) that we already had prepared in the fridge.
Verdict: The flavor of these burgers was good. The browning was essential for good flavor for me– I definitely liked the harder seared burgers better. They weren’t super mushroomy, which I prefer. I could taste the powdery texture of the cornstarch, which was extremely unpleasant. I’m not sure if the extra 30 minutes of chilling would have eliminated that factor, because when we reheated these for another meal, the texture was gone. I’m not sure I would make them again. I’ve had other veggie burgers that I’ve liked better, so I’m not sure these make the cut. They probably could have used some cheese and maybe some cayenne in the mixture or hot sauce to pump them up a little more. Not awful, but probably not worth the effort to tweak them into something better.
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