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These flavorful quinoa burgers are easy to make and keep well in the fridge for several days. Top with hummus and avocado and dig in!
At risk of repetition, I’ll say again something I repeat often: I’m not a natural born cook. Four years ago, I had no idea what quinoa was. Six years ago, I couldn’t even boil a pot of water to make pasta (true story). A change came when Alex and I got married and wanted to have others over for dinner. Our first meal was a bit rough, but luckily our guests were gracious! Gradually, we kept learning and exposing ourselves to people who really, truly loved being in the kitchen. It was contagious. A formative moment was when we read a book called Food Matters that challenged us to consider the way we ate. To make a long story short, we made a commitment to start eating all unprocessed, real foods and started this blog to share about it. Keep reading for more about real food, and this veggie quinoa burger recipe!
Another great veggie burger? Try our Best Chickpea Burgers.
Eating real food
I say all this to introduce Lisa Leake. A mom of two, she had a similar turning point several years ago when she read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food,which caused her and her family to take a challenge of eating real food for 100 days. It changed their lives, and she now chronicles all things real food-related on her immensely popular blog, 100 Days of Real Food.
There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to healthy eating; one I hear often is that you have to be some kind of naturally-talented kitchen god or goddess who’s been cooking since kindergarten. The good news: not true. I think Lisa would agree when I say we’re just normal, everyday people who heard about a different way of eating and started passionately pursuing it. We’re not the best chefs or amazing gourmet masters; we grew up eating Easy Mac instead of kale. But we’ve come to love eating honest, delicious, real foods.
How to make these quinoa veggie burgers
These quinoa veggie burgers are from Lisa’s new book, 100 Days of Real Food. We’ve struggled with veggie burgers in the past, but these turned out wonderfully. If you’ve never made veggie burgers or fritters before, it takes a little practice pan-frying them, but it’s worth the learning curve. The main idea is to make quinoa, combine it with egg, cheese, and some sauteed veggies, and then form them into patties. Then, pan fry the patties in a bit of oil until they’re lightly browned and crispy! These quinoa burgers turned out moist and flavorful! The burgers keep in the refrigerator, so we ate these quinoa burgers for several days after we made them.
Lisa’s book is full of wonderful recipe ideas like this quinoa burgers recipe! 100 Days of Real Food is great for families, with a whole section on school lunches, and has options for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike. Check it out if you’re looking to take a small step, a baby step even, towards real food eating. You won’t be disappointed!
Looking for more vegetarian dinner recipes?
Along with this quinoa burgers recipe, we have tons of vegetarian recipes on our blog, but a few of our all-time favorites are:
- Classic Vegetarian Chili
- Easy Calzone Recipe
- Jackfruit BBQ Sandwich
- Chickpea Couscous Bowls with Tahini Sauce
- Grilled Vegetable Pasta with Romesco
- Vegan Banh Mi Sandwiches
- Cozy Farro and Brussels Sprouts Soup
- The BEST Grilled Veggie Burger
Looking for more quinoa recipes?
Outside of these quinoa burgers, we have many quinoa recipes on A Couple Cooks! Here are a few of our favorite quinoa recipes:
- Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice
- Tropical Mango Quinoa Bowls
- Feta and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
- Artichoke & Quinoa Vegetarian Enchiladas
- All our quinoa recipes!
This recipe is…
This quinoa burgers recipe is vegetarian.
Quinoa Burger Recipe
These flavorful quinoa burgers are easy to make and keep well in the fridge for several days. Top with hummus and avocado and dig in!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the quinoa burgers
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2/3 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
- ¾ cup minced carrot (2 to 3 carrots)
- ⅓ cup minced onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For serving
- Hummus or Special Burger Sauce
- Sliced avocado
- Salad greens or lettuce leaves
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa, according to Master Recipe: Perfect Quinoa or Instant Pot quinoa.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add carrot and chop enough for ¾ cup. Remove and add onion and chop enough for ⅓ cup. Remove and add 3 peeled garlic cloves; process until minced.
- When the quinoa is done, in a large bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients except the oil. With wet hands, form the quinoa mixture into 8 patties about 1 inch thick and place on a clean plate or cutting board.
- In a large sauté pan with a tight-fitting lid, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the burgers to the pan, cover, and cook until the bottoms are browned, 6 to 8 minutes. (Covering the pan ensures the burgers cook all the way through the middle without overcooking the outside.) Flip the burgers and repeat, adding another tablespoon of oil if necessary (The pan should not be dry). Sauté in a few batches if necessary, and let cool for a few minutes to firm up.
- Serve warm topped with hummus and avocado and wrapped in big lettuce leaves, or over salad greens.
What is your trick to getting them to stick? Have tried this a few times and always end up googling what I can add to make them stick. Like the flavor, but horrible trying to cook
Thanks for letting us know! This dough should stick together because the cheese and egg act as a glue. Next time, pressing the patties together more when you form them — you could also try chilling them for 15 minutes prior to cooking, which helps them to set. As a note, this recipe is not our own, it’s one shared from another author from her cookbook! So it’s not one we’ve personally engineered. Thanks for letting us know about this issue! We’ll try reaching out to the recipe author to learn more.
I’ve made this twice and like them. I can’t find the nutritional info.
Thanks for making the recipe! Nutritional info is now available in the recipe card.
5 STARS! Delicious! Must have the hummus because that makes this go from great to AWESOME. I prefer using tricolored quinoa but it is all good. Now that my 12 year old is a vegetarian I am constantly looking for recipes that she will like as well as my husband and 3 meat loving sons. She is not into anything cheesy so replacing meat with cheese is not an option. This has become a favorite :)
I know this is an old post but- I made these this past weekend for meal-prep Sunday and they are delicious!!! I def struggle with being totally satisfied and full without eating meat but these quinoa patties really do the trick. So delicious!! Thanks!
These are super easy and also easy to swap out ingredients if you need to! I only had quinoa, sweet potato and peppers when I awoke this morning (yea I know, I need to grocery shop!). However, I made the quinoa and minced the other stuff, added two eggs (basically followed this recipe minus what I didn’t have) and added some seasonings and they were perfect! I tried one egg at first, but you definitely need two as the bonding agent, then just put a plop down in the pan (it doesn’t have to be perfect you can shape it as you cook it). Make sure you cook it long enough. You do almost have to treat these like fritters, keep in on long enough to “fry” them together, but not too long (unless you like them blackened like me !).
How can you make these GF and no dairy..what would you use for substitutes for ww flour and cheese
Otherwise they look delicious
Thanks
Hi! Sorry, I’m not sure what would be good substitutes in this case.
My son and I have all sorts of things going on medically and in our lives. I am constantly interested in eating better and healthier foods. We work on such a extremely tight budget. Healthy, nonprocessed recipes that work off of a penny budget would be an awesome thing to find. This recipe sounds interested and tasty!
Great and different way of using quinoa, not to mention that it really looks like a healthy meal. :)