Carrot and Sesame Burger

Served with a lemon tahini soy yogurt sauce, avocado, watercress, shallots and lashings of Thai sweet chilli sauce :-)

Oh I do love a good burger, and a good burger these certainly are!! Recipe comes from BBC Good Food, was featured on their front page awhile back and I knew I had to make them right away. The recipe did call for an egg but I just replaced that with my egg replacer of choice lately - yup, the xanthan gum one, and they turned out perfect! In the comments section a lot of people said they crumbled and fell apart, well, the egg-less vegan ones don't that's for sure (vegan win!!!) Although, I didn't try bbq'ing these, just shallow fried, but I don't see why they couldn't be oven baked for an even healthier burger. **Edit - I just made these by popping them under a hot pre-heated grill for about 5 minutes a side and they came out perfect. You can brush a little olive oil on them before and when flipping if you like but there is no need. Nice healthier way to cook them!**

Anyway, they taste wonderful - the recipe served these with a lemon and tahini yoghurt sauce, avocado, rocket and thai sweet chilli sauce. Whenever I try a new recipe I like to follow it to a 'T' then make any changes I see fit. This time I wouldn't make any. While I didn't find the yogurt sauce that interesting on it's own it went lovely with this burger and everything else, as did the avocado. I used watercress instead of rocket due to personal preference and loved that....and the Thai sweet chilli sauce is essential!! It really made the burger and I have to say I used lashings of it!! So yummy, definitely another burger that will be on the regular dinner rotation :-)

Recipe is on their website but I'll post what I did here, mainly replacing the egg, I added 3/4 tsp salt (they just said to 'season') and their recipe said you get 6 burgers out of it, I halved it and got 5 very good sized ones out of it. Lately I've also been replacing the lemon zest with lime and do prefer that - lime and cumin and carrot all going so beautifully together!

Oh, and we had these with a side salad and a big old glass of Pimms - lovely!! :-)

Carrot and Sesame Burgers: 

375g carrots (weight before prepping), peeled and grated

1/2 can chickpeas (120g drained and rinsed)

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 Tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp ground cumin

50g breadcrumbs

1 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds

3/4 tsp fine sea salt

zest of 1 lime or 1/2 a lemon (lime my preference, but both good)

1 Tbsp olive oil

---1 egg----

1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 Tbsp potato starch

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/16 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp veg oil

50ml water

To Serve:

burger buns

avocado

watercress or rocket

shallots or red onion slices (or any mild onion)

lemon tahini soy yogurt sauce

Thai sweet chilli sauce

Whisk everything up for your egg until thick and a little frothy. Set aside. Put a third of the grated carrots into a food processor with the chickpeas, onion, tahini, cumin and 'egg'. Whizz until you have a thick paste, then scrape into a large bowl. Heat the olive oil in a large wok, tip in the remaining carrot and cook for about 8 minutes until the carrot is softened, they will become more golden as they cook. Add this cooked carrot to the paste with the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt and sesame seeds. Mix together well.

Lightly grease your hands with some olive oil then shape into patties whatever size you like. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. When ready to cook, heat up some vegetable oil in a large frying pan (I shallow fried so added quite a bit) and fry the burgers about 5 minutes a side, or until golden brown on both sides. Alternatively you can grill them by simply popping them under a hot preheated grill for about 5 minutes a side or until lightly golden with charred edges. Lightly toast the buns and serve with the yogurt sauce, avocado, watercress, shallots and Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Lemon Tahini Soy Yogurt Sauce:

150ml plain soy yogurt

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp tahini

Simply mix it all together and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Note - this makes a lot!

EDIT - works really nice in a wrap too! Same components but shape the burger into a large sausage shape and fry. Very good!

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 patty out of five -not fried.

Calories: 173

Protein: 4.6g

Carbs: 22.7g

Sugar: 4.5g

Fibre: 4.1g

Fat: 7.7g

Sat Fat: 1.1g

Sodium: 347mg

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