Veggie Burgers

Dear Lauren,

I have a recipe for a dish that calls for veggie burgers as one of the ingredients. I could buy some, but we've never found one we absolutely loved. So I thought I'd make one up.

The first thing I did was start shredding.

I had three zucchini and I knew I'd never use all of them so I just shredded and spread them out over some paper towels to absorb the extra moisture. You can use cloth towels but the zucchini does stick a bit so I use paper. Just leave them sitting there for a couple hours and let them dry out a bit and then ziploc them and stick em in the freezer. The, whenever you want, you can grab a handful and add it to taco meat, soup, hash browns, zucchini bread, or really anything. The shreds really do disappear into whatever you are cooking but it adds fiber.



Zucchini shreds work really well with taco meat! The taco seasoning colors everything and you cannot tell at all there's zucchini in it! Of course, I love zucchini but do you remember when I fed it to Grampa? He hates vegetables! But he loved the tacos! They were 2/3 zucchini and 1/3 ground beef. I never told him til he was done eating. His jaw dropped. Haha!

Anyway, back to the burgers. Any recipe where you get to toss everything in a bowl and smoosh it with your hands is a good one.

These look pretty good.

Since you ate 3 of them, I assume you agree.

Veggie Burgers

12 ounce package Original Smart Ground
1 potato, medium, shredded
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded
1/2 cup cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh herbs, finely chopped

Prep work:

• Shred your zucchini. When I made these burgers, I shredded the three I had on hand, laid out some paper towels and tossed the shreds on top to let them dry out a bit. I did this because I planned on freezing what I didn't use for the recipe.
• Shred your potato. I purposely didn't specify what type of potato. Use a sweet, red, white, blue, whatever you have on hand. (I used a red today.)
• Shred your cheese. Again, use what you like and have on hand. Cheese is easiest to shred when it's very cold so I put mine in the freezer for 30 minute prior to shredding. ( I used cheddar today. You can use blue cheese or goat cheese or other soft cheeses and they don't need shredding. Just crumble them.)
• Herbs - you can use dried herbs if you have no fresh. Whatever you like. (Today I clipped sage, Italian parsley, chives, and thyme from Dad's garden.)

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a bowl. Break up the Smart Ground with your fingers. Then just smush everything together til it's well combined and you can form a patty that doesn't fall apart.

Put a skillet on the stove top and turn the heat to medium-low. Let the pan get warm and then add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil (or cooking spray) to the pan and add the patties. Let cook without disturbing for 5 minutes and then flip the patties. Let cook for 4 more minutes until cooked through. Cooking times vary, just see how it goes with your stove.

Love,

P.S. These taste like beef burgers. They have the right texture. So I thought I would add that you can season these burgers however you like. The possibilities are endless. Next time, I think I'll add cumin, chopped cilantro, and a tiny squeeze of lime. Basil and mozzarella would be pretty tasty too.