For me, there is never enough vegan burgers in one's life. No wonder I have so many burger patty recipes on VeganSandra. I regularly cook my old recipes at home and I love to come up with the new ones, too. And if I am eating out and there's a vegan burger on the menu, I will always order it. I just love good old comfort food like that. So if you ever want to make me happy, just cook me a veggie burger and I will be forever thankful :)
There are many ways to make a good burger. First, you need a proper patty recipe. This one has been my huge favorite and also inspired me to make these eggplant sliders. The patty has to be well seasoned, juicy and hold together nicely. I have tried to bake my patties too, but I love them pan-fried. This way they will be crispy and moist. If I bake them, they turn out to be like cookies. Cookie burger doesn't sound so good, but if you have a lot of sauce, it can be fine too. Second, you will need green stuff. My most favorite is iceberg lettuce. It has a nice crispy texture. Of course spinach, regular lettuce and coleslaw will work too. Coleslaw reminds me these humongous burgers which they sold in little food kiosks in Estonia and the burgers were always dripping with sauce. Most of the time you actually had to eat them with a fork! Sauce is important too. I love this sunflower sour cream or just some quality ketchup and mustard. And lastly, you need your favorite burger buns. I like to try different ones.
This time I noticed these beautiful tiny rye buns. I love that in Estonia, you have a major selection of different bread products with different flours and seeds. So I grabbed these cute buns and decided to make tiny sliders. I also noticed beautiful eggplants to make patties out of. The outcome was absolutely delicious. Crispy and moist eggplant and bean patties, rye rolls, some ketchup and mild mustard and juicy iceberg lettuce. Of course you can make big burgers too with this recipe, but sliders are just so fun to make and eat!
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Serves: 20 small patties or about 13 big ones
Ingredients:
- 2 x 14 oz / 2 x 400 g canned kidney beans (other beans will do too)
- 4 cups / 300 g cubed eggplant
- 2 medium onions
- 3 big garlic cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp dried dill
- 2 Tbsp paprika powder
- ¾ cup / 100 g whole-wheat flour
+ some oil for cooking and small burger buns, ketchup, mild mustard and iceberg lettuce for serving
Directions:
Drain and rinse the beans and mush them with your hands. They don't need to be a purée, just coarsley mashed. Cut eggplant into tiny cubes (don't peel it). Add the cubes to the mixture. Thinly chop the onions and garlic and add them to the mixture along with salt, dried dill, paprika powder and whole-wheat flour. Mix everything carefully together with your clean hands. Heat up a pan and pour some oil in it. Form small patties and cook them in hot oil until crispy on both sides. Serve them in a burger bun along with ketchup, mild mustard and shredded iceberg lettuce.
