These California Veggie Burger Sliders are piled high with fresh avocado slices, sweet onion and crisp baby romaine lettuce.
These tender veggie patties contain brown rice, garbanzo beans, creamy tahini spread and sweet corn. A side of my Cali Carrot Pistachio Sunshine Slaw makes for a zippy side dish. Serve with sun citrus iced tea or maybe some fizzy minted ginger ale.
Maybe you've noticed from my tweets that I'm in Los Angeles, California for a few weeks this fall/winter. The last few days have been a whirlwind. Insane really. From flying with my cat across country on Virgin America to making sure I'm settled here to continue blogging in full force - I'm exhausted! But it's fabulous.
Thank goodness my kitty is finally feeling cozy. Although she has not adjusted to the time change yet. Her usual 6am pounce-on-mommy's-face-until-she-wakes-up-and-feeds-me routine now happens at 3am. Yikes. Well, this morning it was 4:30am, so she's getting there.
Last night I dined at Veggie Grill for the very first time (loved it!) and this morning I took a jog on the beach followed by blending up a frosty acai smoothie. Beaches, sunshine and smoothies in November? Nice.
And ps, where should I eat/visit while I'm here? LA peeps clue me in. I already know and love M Cafe, Veggie Grill, Native, Real Food Daily and Madeleine's and the fab Farmer's Markets. But any secret gems out there? Or vegan fro yo?
These sliders certainly do fit my mood...
Vegan Slider Buns. I was so excited to find these vegan mini slider buns at Trader Joe's, they inspired me to make these sunshine-infused veggie burgers.
California Carrot Sunshine Slaw
1 ½ cups shredded carrots
¼ cup California organic raisins
⅓ cup California salted/roasted pistachios
3 tablespoon Vegenaise
2 tablespoon sweet onion, chopped
1 tablespoon maple syrup
¼ cup pineapple cubes
pepper to taste
optional: splash of apple cider vinegar - but will thin out your dressing a bit.
Cali Garlic Tahini Brown Rice Bean Burgers
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 ½ cups garbanzo beans, canned/drained
3 tablespoon tahini sauce (I used Trader Joe's brand - ultra creamy like hummus, includes lemon juice, garlic and salt. If you are using traditional tahini you can add in a splash of lemon juice to the burger mash. If you don't have or want the boldness of tahini sub with any flavor of hummus.)
2 teaspoon maple syrup
½ cup canned corn, drained
½ teaspoon garlic salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
3-6 tablespoon flour (or combo of flour/nutritional yeast)
vegan slider buns (mine are from Trader Joe's)
burger toppings: mustard, vegan mayo, sliced sweet onion, lettuce, avocado slices
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Add all carrot slaw ingredients to a large bowl. Toss well. Place in fridge until ready to serve.
3. Cook your brown rice (I used an easy steamer bag for speed). Add all your burger ingredients to a large bowl - except the flour. Mash well. You want to make sure all the beans are mashed so that they assist in the binding of the burger. Lastly, add in the flour one scoop at a time until you like the consistency of your burger mixture. Scoop into small balls and flatten into patties on baking sheet. They will bind together in the oven - so don't add too much flour and dry them out.
4. Bake at 400 for ten minutes. Lower oven to 350. Depending on the size of your burgers - continue to bake at 350 degrees until you can easily remove burgers from sheet without having them fall apart. However, do not overcook. They will firm up a significantly as they cool.
5. Warm buns in the heated oven.
6. Prep garnish veggies and assemble! Add mustard and vegan mayo to bun sides. Patty. Avocado. Onion. Lettuce. Top with a toothpick. Then add the pineapple chunks that you had tossed in the carrot slaw to the top of your slider toothpicks.
Plate and serve!
Sun-tea, Smoothie, Frosted Pink Lemonade or some Triple Citrus Lemonade to sip with..
