Rustic Veggie Patties

Have you ever had a moment where you just say, f*ck it, I’m going to do this myself? For most people this happens for serious life events. For me, it happened with veggie burgers. Don’t make fun of me! I love veggie burgers, but I find most of the pre-made frozen brands to be chock full of sodium and chemicals, not to mention way over priced. Morningstar, anyone? They’re so good, but come on, a pack of two is like $4. As I was doing my usual wandering around Trader Joe’s yesterday, looking for a husband… I mean dinner… I decided that there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to come up with an easy, inexpensive way to make patties at home. Hell, I’m the starving artist – this is what I do! So I purchased a fresh veggie mix (TJ’s had a pre-cut mix of onion, mushroom, and asparagus for $4), an eggplant, a can of chick peas, a pre-cooked packet of brown rice, and I was off – the rest would come from my pantry at home.

You’ll see from the recipe that the process I devised is simple – all I did was roast and puree the fresh vegetables and fold in some thawed frozen veggies I had in my freezer with the brown rice. I didn’t want to use any egg or binding agents, which was a challenge, but I discovered that adding chickpeas to the puree gave it enough texture to hold together fairly well, particularly when combined with the brown rice.  In the end I spent maybe $7 and had enough to easily make 8 patties of pure nutritional goodness. And if you’re feeling even more frugal, instead of patties you could make little falafel balls and stretch the mix even further – put them in a pita with some spinach and greek yogurt sauce. Delish.

Now I have to tell you a disclaimer about this recipe (actually all of my recipes) – I measure nothing. I mean, let’s be serious, I’m the starving artist, I’m making this shit up as I go. I do my best in all the recipes I type up to give you accurate amounts, but this one was particularly difficult to quantify. Basically I put enough enough diced veggies to cover the bottom of a 14×11 inch roasting pan in an even layer. But, as you know is my motto as the starving artist, recipes are just a jumping off point for your own creativity. So, take mine, and if there’s something you don’t like, then try something else.

Rustic Veggie Patties (Recipe PDF)

But seriously, aren’t the men who shop at Trader Joe’s ridiculous? Is it just me?