If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you probably know that I absolutely LOVE healthy fast food. This means vegan burgers & co that are made with fresh and healthy ingredients instead of meat, white flour, lots of flavor enhancers, and a couple of pathetic-looking cucumbers and half-faded lettuce. The burgers we have are usually packed with tons of nutrients, veggies, and lots of spices like this vegan chickpea quinoa power burger.
It really deserves its name as a “power burger”. Besides quinoa and chickpeas it contains lots of fresh vegetables like mushrooms, red bell pepper, celery, and carrots. I also used garlic, a red onion, lots of spices, mustard, and liquid smoke, which is, however, optional but really gives the veggie burgers a great smoky taste. Quinoa is super healthy and we have it at least once or twice a week. It’s packed with protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It contains 50% more iron than wheat and is also rich in calcium. Besides its protein is high in essential amino acids, so it really is the perfect garnish or even the main part of a meal like in these vegan quinoa burgers.
Plus, quinoa is gluten-free and easy to digest. So what is there not to love about quinoa, right?! We topped the chickpea quinoa power burger off with some tomato and avocado slices, lettuce, BBQ sauce, and some mustard. To make them stick together, I used two teaspoons of carob gum powder. If you can’t find it, guar gum works as well. You can also leave it out and the burgers will still be great, just a bit softer.
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to use quinoa, check out these 40 vegetarian quinoa recipes by Kiersten from Oh My Veggies. I also love using quinoa for salads and bowls.
This chickpea quinoa burger is one of our favorite burgers right now! I think we had it like three times over the last two weeks. And of these two weeks we were on a trip to Amsterdam for 5 days during which we didn’t cook much, so you clearly see how much we like it. Haha!
We also had some great vegan food on our trip to the Netherlands. It’s super easy to find vegan food there. I had some people asking me on Instagram how I knew where to look for vegan restaurants and one girl even said that she had such a hard time in Amsterdam because she didn’t find anything vegan. I usually use an app called Happy Cow on all my trips. It’s also accessible online without the app and it shows you all vegan, vegetarian, and veggie-friendly restaurants world-wide. It also gives you a map with all the restaurants, just like Google maps, which makes it super easy to use. I travel a lot and I’ve already used it on several trips to the U.S., Canada, Asia, and Europe and it always works really well.
Amsterdam is really worth a visit not just because of its great vegan places. Its historical canals are sooo beautiful and we were lucky and had lots of sunshine! We visited the Anne Frank house, which was extremely sad and really makes you think about your own life and what real problems are. I’ve read Anne’s diary and one of the many biographies, but I never imagined the place to be this depressing with the black curtains that always had to remain closed and everything being so small for eight people…
I also really loved the colorful tulips that were just EVERYWHERE all over Amsterdam! Unfortunately the trees just began to turn green again and we were a bit early, but April is the best season to see all these beautiful Dutch tulips.
I hope you like this chickpea quinoa power burger as much as we do! Let me know if you give them a try. :-)
If you’re looking for more veggie burgers, check out this roundup of 35 delicious vegan burgers:
Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you soon! xx
Chickpea Quinoa Power Burger
Ingredients
For the chickpea quinoa power patties:
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas
- 1 flax egg (1 1/2 tablespoons ground flax seeds + 3 tablespoons water, soaked for 5 minutes)
- 2 stalks celery, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
- 5 medium mushrooms, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 medium carrot, cut into small pieces
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons guar gum or carob gum If you can't find it, you can also leave it out and the burgers will still be great, just a bit softer.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- black pepper, to taste
- red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
For the burgers:
- 4 whole wheat buns
- 2 tomatoes, cut into slices
- 2 avocado, cut into slices
- lettuce
- BBQ-sauce
- mustard
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. Use vegetable broth instead of water. Set aside.
- Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Mash with a fork. Leave some of the chickpeas still intact for texture.
- In a large pan, heat some oil and sauté the onions for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Then add the red bell pepper, the celery, the mushrooms, and the carrots and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- In a large bowl combine the quinoa, the mashed chickpeas, the flax egg, and the cooked veggies. Add the spices, the mustard, guar gum, salt, pepper, and if using the liquid smoke and red pepper flakes and stir well.
- Form 4 patties and heat some oil in a large pan. Cook the patties for about 3 minutes on each side until golden. Serve on whole wheat buns and top them off with tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, BBQ sauce, and mustard.
This recipe was amazing!! I’d definitely do it again. But, my burgers were slightly soft because I could not find the carob gum. Is there a substitute I could use?
You didn’t say what to do with the flax
Hi Chad, I’m sorry about that! I just updated the recipe.
Those buns! What brand are they? Where do you find them?
Hi Tanya, I bought them at Aldi, but I don’t know if you guys can find them in the states. But any other whole wheat buns (preferably with seeds on top) would work as well. :-)
I’m hoping to make these today, so I realize, not much of a chance of getting an answer, but worth a try. The quinoa 1/2 cup cooked, does that mean measure the 1/2 cup after cooking or cook 1/2 Cup of quinoa which of course would yield more than 1/2 cup? Right now I’m leaning toward cooking the quinoa and then measuring.
Hi Leslie, I’m so sorry for the confusion! You’re right that really is a bit unclear. It means cook 1/2 cup of quinoa (measuring before cooking). Let me know how you liked them. :-) Have a great Sunday!
Wow, thanks for getting back so quickly. I think I have too many veggies in them, they are falling apart and there’s a lot more than 4 burgers (that’s the one I used). Perhaps if you could measure the chopped veggies by the cup to tweak this a bit. I haven’t fried them yet, but I don’t think they are going to flip over very easily. I’m wondering about next time chilling the mixture first, or pre-baking? Have you tried either? I think they’ll taste great but may be more like a “loose” burger than a patty when done.
Oh no, so sorry they’re not holding together as they should, Leslie! Yeah, this really sounds like you used too many veggies then. Did you use the guar-gum or carob-gum? This really helps the burger to stick together. No, unfortunately I haven’t tried either yet as they were holding together quite well when I made them. But next time, I’ll measure the chopped veggies by the cup and add that to the recipe. Hope that helps! :-)
I made this recipe today. I had to skip the Tbyme because I had none, and at the last second I realized I had no chickpeas, and so I subbed Great Northern Beans. Also, I used fresh Basil.
These are TO DIE FOR. Seriously, my mouth wanted to keep eating and eating and eating them. We are definitely going to put this into our regular rotation. Thank you for such an awesome recipe!!!!