You may remember that last summer, around this time, I issued myself (and anyone who would join me) a challenge to create the perfect veggie burger. We got off to a promising start… and then, unknown to you, the grill at my apartment building disappeared. Not a little personal grill, either; this was one of those big iron contraptions on a post like you find at campgrounds. Now, it is just a post in the ground. It was far from the ideal grill, but without it I got kind of disheartened.
Then, a few weeks ago, I had an idea, and this week the weather was so nice that I felt like burgers, even if I had no grill.
The idea was gluten: if you’ve ever made seitan from scratch, you know how gluten flour sticks to itself and stretches when you mix it with water. It’s hard to shape into burgers, and wouldn’t make a very satisfying one on its own, but I thought it could be just the binder that I was looking for in my black bean quinoa burgers.
And it worked, sort of; I followed the method from the originals, and at the end, slowly worked in gluten flour until the batter got a little solidity to it. It held together on a frying pan (the grill would be the next test), got a nice charred coating on the outside, and tasted good. But, it was still mushy. The next attempt might need a lot more gluten, using it as a major ingredient rather than just a binder. But these burgers, according to Nathan, “push the little button in my head that says burger.”
And they were great with blue cheese.
So this isn’t yet the ultimate veggie burger – but I think it’s the next incarnation beyond my previous attempts.
(Apologies for the lack of pictures – I actually took some, but my camera cable got packed away somewhere, so they are stuck in my camera. I will share next time!)