Vegetarian Burgers

Preservative Free Cooking 3 and Burger Recipes

A few months back I wrote a blog on eating preservative free food and how it is easier than you think. Now I want to write a further blog on taking small steps. On quizzing my sister in law on what seasoning her family in Timor Leste used before Ayam seasoning (which contains MSG and many other preservatives), she told me stock cubes and before that her grandmother just used salt, lemongrass, ginger, galangal and garlic.

By reversing this back I thought it is possible to make small steps in order for people to change to a preservative free diet. Using stock cubes as an example. Check out the ingredients, many of them now boast no MSG, no gluten and no preservatives but they are then packed with sugar and palm oil. Which baffles me because when would anyone put sugar in a soup. If you do want a sweet soup add pumpkin, sweet potato or beetroot.

My solution to not using stock cubes is to make your own stock but lets face it this is a time consuming exercise and takes more time than many of us have. An easier step to take is to buy Australian organic herb salt and use that. Start there, possibly many of you will baulk at the price of it compared to stock cubes but I suggest buying it as a start using two to three teaspoons per soup at first and then reducing it down to one or a half teaspoons and then none as you make subsequent soups. When you start decreasing the herb salt you can start using fresh herbs instead and add some salt.

As you make the small step changes your taste buds and you will begin to appreciate the more subtle flavours of your vegetables and over time you will need less and less flavouring. Possibly things will end up cheaper in the long run. What I can guarantee happening is that when you go out to eat you will be able to work out which restaurants and cafes are using stock cubes and other pre-made sauces laden with preservatives as your taste buds will be heightened and not used to the intense flavours.

This week's recipe is based on an experience I had just last week. Periodically I go to a supermarket and find myself looking at the vegetarian pre-made burgers hoping there is a preservative free version. After looking at the table of contents and seeing the preservatives, additives and gluten products in the ingredients I walk away and say to myself I must learn to make burgers. Well finally last week I did do just that, I went straight home and put together a burger recipe with the ingredients I had in the fridge and cupboard They are tasty, I ate mine with salad and my partner Makrand made a burger with his organic sour dough bread. I made seven burgers with this recipe and froze five so Makrand can take them out on those days I am not home for lunch.

This was actually a small step change for me as I really had a mental block on how to make burgers and I went for it, now I am experimenting with different ingredients, so far these are the best.

Vegetarian Burgers

800g cooked chickpeas

1 cup besan flour

2 tsp gluten free tamari 2 cloves garlic minced (optional)

1/2 Spanish onion diced finely

1 grated carrot

2 heaped teaspoons of fresh thyme chopped fine

juice of 1/2 lime or 1/4 lemon

1 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 5 tbsp almond or soy milk

oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients together. Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan and scoop in the mixture into what ever size burger you would like. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes then flip over, press down on the burger as this way more of the inside will cook. Cook for a further 4 to 5 minutes or until you think it is cooked through and to the colour of your liking.