Being a vegetarian is great life choice. It is a healthier way of life, but there are challenges along the way. Very often it is hard to find ready made foods or choices in restaurants that are delicious. I have found that many of the frozen varieties of veggie burgers are often expensive and devoid of taste. My family has even found that the flavor of some so called veggie burgers tastes like meat. That was not for us. I decided to create a recipe that cooks as well as the frozen variety, is cheaper, and stores well. My veggie burgers have an Indian spin on the traditional veggie burgers. These veggie burgers are healthy savory and best of all they freeze well.
If you want a satisfying meal and have a hearty appetite just make a larger patty. Something different about this recipe is the semolina flour. In India semolina flour, often referred to as ‘suji’ is often used as a binding agent like bread crumbs. That is what gets vegetable cutlets nice and crispy.
If you have an Indian-Pakistani grocery store in your area you will be able to get the spices easily if you don’t have the spices in your cupboard. If you don’t own a pressure cooker feel free to substitute that step with a micro steamer, or any way you boil and steam your vegetables. These veggie burgers taste great fresh, but if you’d like to make a batch ahead of time for busy nights when you are tempted to eat out these are great time savers!
I like to cook my veggie burgers on a large pancake griddle so they all fit and I can use less oil. Remember if you plan on freezing your veggie burgers you want to just cook the veggie burgers till they have bound together and are just cooked. This way when you cook the frozen patty you will not overcook your patty. Also try out a non stick cooking spray if you are storing your patties so you use less oil. When you defrost your veggie burgers go ahead and have a few tablespoons of oil in a bowl that you can brush or lightly spoon onto your frozen veggie burgers.
In a pressure cooker steam the chickpeas, potatoes, rice, and mix vegetables. Add salt to taste the potatoes, rice, and mix veggies.
After opening the cooker strain and mix the ingredients and mash together. Add the ginger-garlic paste and other spices to taste.
Add the semolina as binding. You may need to add more semolina into the veggie burger mix if the mix is very sticky.
The bread slices should be wet and drained of any water and added to veggie mix. Mix well
Form patties and roll in semolina.
Cook on a griddle till golden brown on both sides and serve hot.
If cooking to freeze cook half way on both sides and cool. The best way to store the veggie burgers is to place them in freezer bags with wax paper separating the veggie burgers.
