Veggie burger

Did I mention I'm taking a vegan cooking class this month?  I'm pretty sure I'm not going to completely embrace that lifestyle, but I am really enjoying the class, learning about new foods and cooking techniques, and I've gotten one good recipe from each class that I want to remember.  Today I made veggie burgers for lunch.  This is something I never would have made before, but after trying one at class last night, I made my own.  It has a whole bunch of ingredients.  I didn't follow the recipe, but here's how I did mine.
In my handy dandy food processor, I whirred up 1/2 c. oatmeal and 2 T. toasted sesame seeds until it was a powder.  I set that aside to use as thickening/binding later.  

I had made a bean dip last week that had too much cayenne pepper in it, so I decided to use it as the basis for my veggie burger.  It had:
1 can diced tomatoes

1 can black beans

lime juice

cilantro

5 garlic cloves

1 onion

2 T. plain Greek yogurt

cayenne pepper

salt

cumin

To that, I added: 

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1/2 C. brown rice

soy sauce

curry powder

Looks disgusting. I know this. Just have to get over it.

I mixed the oatmeal/sesame powder in with my hands and formed patties.  I went off the vegan wagon a little bit here, because I didn't have enough dry powder to make them formable.  They were still goopy and gross.  I was too lazy to wash and dry the food processor bowl so I could whir up more oatmeal, so I stared in the pantry for something dry I could use.  I found a package of instant mashed potatoes.  I added some of that, and it was perfect. They were loaded potatoes (with bacon, cheese, sour cream), so the vegans would frown on that, but it worked great for forming patties. 

I baked them at 400 for 15 minutes.  The teacher said to cook them in a skillet, but I had classes to teach and didn't have time to babysit burgers, so baked them instead.  I was afraid they might dry out in the oven, so I covered them with foil.  They started smelling good after 15 minutes, and they looked kind of tan, so I took them out.  (How do you know when a veggie burger is done???)

I assembled them like a real burger, with lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, and mustard on a whole wheat sandwich thin.

Noah gobbled it right down and declared it a little squishy, but tasty.  Next time maybe I would make them thinner and cook them in the skillet to make them crispier (or maybe just bake them longer?), but overall I was very pleased with this attempt.