Build a healthy veggie burger!

Last night, I was super tired when I got home from work, and I didn’t want to spend more than 20 min in the kitchen in order to make dinner. Fortunately, I had MorningStar Veggie Burgers in my freezer, which made for a super delicious, healthy and filling meal! Veggie burgers can be made to be either very healthy, or pretty unhealthy. Below are my suggestions on how to build a healthy burger. Enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients

• Veggie burger patty – I like MorningStar Tomato and Basil Pizza Burgers the best. But any veggie burger that has 100-120 calories per burger, 3g fiber or more, and 9g protein or more is a good choice.
• Whole wheat burger buns – I like Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns – each bun has 180 calories, 6g fiber and 9g protein!
• Ketchup
• Baby spinach – this is a much better alternative to lettuce. Spinach has more fiber and healthy antioxidants!
• Tomato slices
• Diced Red onion – a better alternative to white onion (again the red color has healthy antioxidants). I also think red onion has more flavor.
• Sliced Red bell peppers (optional) – if you want to add a bit of extra fiber/veggies to your burger, red bell peppers are a great option – they have a great crunchy texture and fiber

Directions

1. Cook burgers according to package directions (I like grilling them on the stovetop – you don’t need any oil or anything – just a nonstick skillet!)
2. Toast buns, and build your burger! Burger bun, veggie burger patty, onion, tomato, spinach, peppers, ketchup, salt/pepper to taste.

Dinner is served in 20 min!

Btw – using the products above, each burger would have about 300-325 calories, at least 10g fiber and 18-20g protein!

Healthy, Budget-Friendly Black Bean Burgers Recipe!

I’m planning on trying out this recipe this week – I saw it on Sandra’s Money Saving Meals on the Food Network and it looked super easy but also very healthy! Here is the link to the recipe. My notes on how I’ll modify it to make it healthier are below. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped (I’m going to use red onion because I like the flavor and it’s healthier!)
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (If you can find whole wheat bread crumbs that’s a great substitution)
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 4 hamburger rolls (I always use Oroweat’s Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns for any burger I make!)

Burger Toppings:

• Sliced Tomato
• Sliced Red Onion (I always add this to my burgers because I love red onion 🙂 )
• 4 small Romaine lettuce leaves, or any other type you have on hand (I always use baby spinach as a substitution for lettuce – it basically tastes the same and you get way more nutritional bang for your buck!)
• Ketchup

Directions:

1. Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-low heat.

2. In a food processor, pulse onion and garlic until finely chopped. Add 1 can black beans, cilantro, parsley, egg, and red pepper flakes and pulse to combine.

3. Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining can of black beans and the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and mix until well combined.

4. Divide mixture into 6 portions and form into patties. Place on hot oiled grill over medium-low heat and cook about 6 minutes a side or until heated through. Toast hamburger buns on a grill. Place a burger on the bottom of each bun. Top with baby spinach (or lettuce), tomato, onions, and ketchup. Cover the burgers with the top of the bun and serve.

Southwest Pinto Bean Veggie Burgers

I recently found this great veggie burger recipe on myrecipes.com and I tried it out last night. It turned out great so I thought I’d share it – this is a great, hearty burger that will please veggie and meat eaters alike!

Yield – 4 servings

Burger Ingredients 

• 1/2  cup  diced onion
• 1/2  cup  dry breadcrumbs (Trader Joe’s has great organic dry breadcrumbs!)
• 1/4  cup  chopped cilantro
• 2  tablespoons  minced seeded jalapeño pepper
• 2  tablespoons  reduced-fat sour cream (I used fat free sour cream to save calories)              
• 1  teaspoon  hot pepper sauce (Tabasco sauce works great!)
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1  large egg
• 1  (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained
• 1  (8 3/4-ounce) can no salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained

Other Ingredients

• Ketchup
• Red onion slices
• Roma tomato slices
• Baby spinach leaves
• Whole wheat hamburger buns – I used Oroweat’s Whole Grain Hamburger Buns – one bun has 180 calories and 6g fiber!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions

1. To prepare burgers, combine the first 10 ingredients in a large bowl. Add pinto beans and corn; partially mash with a fork (I used a potato masher and it worked really well). Divide bean mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each portion into a 3 1/2-inch patty, and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Shaped Patties post-refrigerator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties to pan, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until thoroughly heated (Mine took me about 4 min on each side to cook, but then I left the patties in the pan on low heat for about 10-15 min longer to cook them all the way through).

Patties Starting to Cook

 

Patties Finished Cooking

3. Place patties on bottom halves of buns; top each patty with 1 tablespoon ketchup, red onion slices, roma tomatoes, baby spinach leaves, and top half of bun. 

Finished Product!

Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nutritional Information 

Calories: 411 (23% from fat)

Fat: 10.7g

Protein: 15.2g

Fiber: 9.1g