Veggie Burgers & Green Smoothie

Today I decided to use the left overs from my green smoothie and make veggie burgers. The good news about doing this, there are no wrong ways to do it. The better news, you end up with amazingly tasty veggie burgers, which follow that super green drink smoothie I like to brag about so much.

Ingredients

Cucumber Lemon Mushrooms Corn Carrots

Banana Peas Spring Onion (or yellow onion) Green/Red peppers Chili Pepper (I used one whole one. You are welcome to omit)

Black Beans Apples Parsley Spinach Ginger

Steps

Part I: Making the Smoothie

1. Put a good portion of spinach in the blender along with the banana. Cover and set aside
   
   
2. Juice the left column while setting aside the ingredients in the right column:

   Juice Cucumber Lemon Remaining spinach Ginger Carrots Parsley Apple

   Mushrooms Corn Carrots Peas Spring Onion (or yellow onion) Green/Red peppers Chili Pepper Black Beans

3. Once you have finished juicing, you will have lots of pulp and of course, the green juice. Place the pulp in a large bowl
   
4. Put juice in blender with the spinach and banana and blend. When blending is complete, you are ready to drink the smoothie.
   
   
   
   

Part II: Making the Veggie Burgers

1. Take all of the remaining ingredients and place in a large mixing bowl. I have also added some dal to give more flavour as well as moisten up the burgers a bit more. A dash of salt and pepper are ok too if you wish.
   
   
2. Gently mix the ingredients by hand. What is important is that everything is evenly mixed.
   
3. Now take handful sizes of the mixture and shape into patties and place on parchment paper. Today, with the ingredients I had, along with the ingredients I added, I was able to make 8 large veggie patties.
   

How to Eat

You can eat them any way you like.. I would suggest eating them raw, you will really be glad you did, but, if not, I feel the best way to prepare the burgers would be to bake them until crispy on the outside in the oven. If you fry them in the pan with oil, you are just adding unnecessary fat to the burger and you run the risk of them breaking apart.  Here are three methods of eating that I recommend:

1. Put on a roll with freshly sliced tomato and lettuce. If you are eating bread this will be a really nice treat for you. You can also cover in some freshly made salsa if daring.
2. Eat with freshly made salsa. 
3. Eat with something else you have made, like a dal. It will make for a great combination.

Hints & Notes

1. Try to always use Organic/Bio foods.
2. Always wash everything well before using
3. If you find the veggie burger mixture is dry, you can do any of the following:
   - Add some water
   - Add freshly squeeze lemon juice
   - Add dal (like I did) which comes with spicy flavours built in
4. When pouring the green juice into the blender for making the smoothie, I always gently move the spinach to the side and ensure there is plenty of juice at the bottom. The reason is, its hard on the blender (I have a good one and it still is not happy sometimes) to start off with all the chunky stuff on the bottom. The better the mixer the less one has to worry about it.. But, because I am drinking this, I want to treat it with respect and care
5. Storage. Unless you are having a party on the day you make the veggie burgers, you will want to store them so they do not go bad. You can put them in the refrigerator if you will eat them in a couple of days. But, if you think it will take you a while, you can always put them in the freezer.
   
   In either case, putting some of the already used parchment paper between each one will keep them in place as well as not stick together.

Please let me know any variations you have made to these burgers or the green drink smoothie. Also, feel free to post your recipes below as well.

En Guete