Seitan Burgers

The weather was reminiscent of summer this week. Holding out a promise of what is soon to come.  It seemed a good time for a cookout.
I thought about making some burgers and fries.  As long as the burger didn't have meat, and the fries weren't fried.  So I made seitan burgers (and confession: ended up baking them!) and eggplant chips.
The next day I tried the portabella fries recipe that will post soon after this.  It's a great side for the burgers--definitely will pair those together in the future. 

Don't worry about following this recipe as is, use whatever spices that appeal to you.  Maybe you want to make a curry burger or add oregano, grated cheese, etc....

 I used serrano relish, lettuce, tomato preserves and carmellized onion.  This was my partners who had avocado, tomato, onion, mustard, relish....
it goes on!





 These were REALLY tender and had great texture.  The addition of the black beans and flours was to help bind them for if I grilled them.  Definitely going on the grill next time.  May increase the oat flour though.





makes 4 burgers

1/2 package Westsoy seitan
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
4 baby Belia mushrooms, chopped
1-2 TB black beans
1/4 TB olive oil
granulated garlic -- I used a lot because we like garlic
4 tsp onion powder
liquid smoke
4 tsp worcestershire
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 TB whole wheat flour
1 TB nutritional yeast

In small saute pan heat olive oil and add chopped onion, garlic and mushrooms.  Season with salt, add liquid smoke and worcestershire.  Cook while you assemble the rest of items.  While cooking, grind the oats into a flour in food processor, leaving a few not completely ground into flour.  Take out and place in medium bowl.  Grind seitan in food processor until broken up but not all mushy--leave some texture.
Check on saute pan--once onions are beginning to brown turn up the heat to cook out any liquid in the pan and add granulated garlic, onion powder, and smoked paprika.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding to seitan.
Now mix ground oats, seitan and onion mixture.  Add nutritional yeast and wheat flour.
I placed these in the refrigerator for a couple hours to help them hold together later.

Spray cookie sheet pan with cooking spray.  Place burgers on tray and spray top of burgers. 
Bake on lowest rack at 450 for 5 minutes first side or until browned, flip burger and cook another 3-5 minutes.