Vegan Chickpea Umami Burgers (gluten-free)

These vegan chickpea umami burgers from Desiree Nielsen’s Good For Your Gut cookbook are super flavourful with sun dried tomatoes, lemon zest, Tamari, and spices. This is a pantry-friendly recipe for sure! These vegan burgers come together in about 30 minutes.

I think I make a different veggie burger recipe pretty much every time the craving strikes. We’ve had our first stretch of really warm, absolutely summery weather here and with my friend Desiree Nielsen‘s book freshly out, I knew what I wanted to make. These vegan chickpea umami burgers from Good for Your Gut are so tasty and easy to make.

I love that they utilize a lot of pantry ingredients! Things like oats, walnuts, canned chickpeas, sun dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, Tamari, and spices. I always have these items on hand in my plant powered pantry, so these veggie burgers came together so easily.

Desiree’s book is more than a collection of recipes! It’s a guide to healing/supporting your gut health from the plant-based perspective of a registered dietician. In the front section of the book, she discusses the gut-brain connection, why folks experience bloating, fermented foods, how stress can impact digestion, the importance of actually chewing (this is something I always have to work at!), FODMAPs, probiotics and prebiotics, and so much more.

The recipes are labelled within 3 categories: Protect, Heal, and Soothe. All of them sound so delicious, which is my main attraction here! Some other recipes I’m looking at: Raspberry and Chocolate Rye Muffins, Sheet Pan Harissa Tofu and Veggies, Brussels Sprouts Caesar with Garlicky Walnuts, and the Salted Tahini Caramel Popcorn Bars.

For the photos, I loaded these up with sliced tomato, pickle, lettuce, vegan mayo, all the goods! One of my favourite quick dinners is a veggie burger salad situation with sliced raw veg, roasted/grilled veg, sauerkraut or kimchi, tahini sauce, basically whatever I have on hand! That’s how I plan to utilize the leftover burgers.

If you’re into this recipe, you might also like my Lemony Oregano Vegan Meatballs or these Grilled Mini Peppers with Spiced Walnut & Lentil Crumble. And definitely check out Desiree’s book!

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Vegan Chickpea Umami Burgers

These vegan chickpea umami burgers from Desiree Nielsen’s Good For Your Gut cookbook are super flavourful with sun dried tomatoes, lemon zest, Tamari, and spices. This is a pantry-friendly recipe for sure! These vegan burgers come together in about 30 minutes.

Prep Time: 25 mins

Cook Time: 8 mins

Total Time: 33 mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 cups baby spinach, tightly packed
• 1 medium shallot, chopped
• ½ cup raw walnuts
• ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and patted dry
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas (two 398 mL cans)
• ½ cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 2 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon gluten-free Tamari soy sauce
• zest of ½ a lemon

Notes

• Desiree notes that if you want a more traditional, detectably firmer burger texture, you can add ⅓ cup bread crumbs (GF if needed) to the mixture.
• Also noted in the book: These burgers can be formed and refrigerated up to 24 hours in advance.
• For the olive oil here, I used the oil that the sun-dried tomatoes were packed in. Nice little bump of flavour!

Instructions

• Place the spinach in a colander over the sink. Slowly pour boiling water over the spinach to wilt. Let it cool.

• In a food processor, add the shallot, walnuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the chickpeas, rolled oats, nutritional yeast, flaxseed, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, water, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, Tamari and lemon zest. Carefully squeeze the excess water out of the spinach and add it to the food processor.

• Pulse until about half the mixture looks like a paste, but you can still see plenty of distinct ingredients. You should be able to form a nice patty with ease. If the mixture is crumbly, pulse a bit more or add 1-2 tablespoons water, a bit at a time.

• In a large, nonstick skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Place the burgers in the skillet and cook until a golden brown crust forms on the bottom, 3-4 minutes. Carefully flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes. The burgers will be soft when they’re warm, but will firm up slightly as they cool.

• Serve the burgers with or without buns, with garnishes and toppings of your choice!