I eat vegetables every single day. It’s important, you know? Especially after the dinner I had earlier this week, I need all the vegetables I can get.
The thing about being vegan is that everyone assumes all you do is eat veggies all day long. You munch a carrot for breakfast, devour some sprouts at lunch, wrap a lettuce leaf around a stick of celery for dinner and then pop a beet in your mouth for dessert and call it a day. It’s funny to me because, as I’ve proven several times on this blog, it’s very easy to be vegan and never ever let a vegetable slide past your lips. It’s totally doable. Of course, I don’t recommend it.
What I do recommend is finding new and different ways to fit vegetables into your meals. I’m one of those people that sometimes needs to have their vegetables hidden. Some days I’m excited to dig into a giant side of roasted veggies or a mega salad, while other days I get all whiny about it. My two favorite ways to sneak vegetables into my diet are with green monsters and veggie burgers. I love veggie burgers. I could eat a different one every single day and not get bored.
Yesterday’s dinner was a broccoli burger with a tahini sauce on top. I love this tahini sauce recipe. I use it for everything from falafel to salads. I like to pile the sauce high on the burger so it drips down the sides. Messy burgers are the best, don’t you agree?
Baked Broccoli Burgers
Burger recipe adapted from the Vegetarian Times
Sauce recipe from Epicurious
Makes 4 burgers
Printable recipe
Burger ingredients:
- 1/3 cup dry couscous
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped scallions
- 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 15 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon sesame tahini
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
Tahini dressing ingredients:
- 1/3 cup sesame tahini
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
I did these first three steps simultaneously in order to speed up the prep time.
1. In a small pot, bring the water and couscous to a boil. Remove from heat immediately and allow the couscous to sit in the pot for 10 minutes, soaking up the water.
2. Steam the broccoli in a steamer for 5-7 minutes (or use a microwave or stove method, you just want the broccoli to be soft in the end)
3. In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add in the onion and scallions, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes until the onion softens. Remove from heat and stir in the cumin.
Gather your couscous, broccoli, onion mix, chickpeas and sesame tahini and combine together in a food processor.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the bread crumbs. Form it into patties and place the patties on a cookie sheet lined with foil.
Bake for 50 minutes, turning the patties over halfway through. You’ll know they are done when the tops begin to brown.
To make the tahini sauce, place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined, roughly 30 seconds.
Top your burgers with the sauce, throw some pickles, tomato and lettuce on there, and go to town!
I’m such a veggie burger addict myself. There really are so many changes you make to mix up the flavors!
I love that there is broccoli in these
What a delicious way to incorporate more veggies into our diets! Beautiful photos.
These sound absolutely yum! Do you think they were solid enough to trust on an actual grill?
Hi Michelle! I’d bake them first, maybe for just 15 minutes or so on each side, just to get the outside a little more solid. That’s what the original Vegetarian Times article recommended, too. My husband and I baked all four patties, ate two immediately, then saved the other two to grill later.
these look delicious! I love a good load of veggies, maybe not a celery stick wrapped in a lettuce leaf, but broccoli burgers. yum.
Oohh, I have to try these!
Super excited to have found ur blog! I love veggie burgers as u can tell by my recipe tab at lizashlee.com!! Be back soon!!
Have a lovely weeend!
Liz
You broccoburger look great. Yum, yum
These look so yummy! Broccoli is my favorite vegetable, so I will definitely be making these
I LOVE vegan burgers. One of the only veggies my meat loving husband will eat is broccoli. Can’t wait to try this!
Looks delicious! I’ve been looking for some new veggie burger options-thanks!
These look fantastic! I think I’ll replace the couscous with quinoa and make them for dinner this week
Beautiful!!! I agree its very easy to be a vegetarian and vegan and eat no veggies..I used to live on chips…bleh!
what a great idea. i love veggie burgers and these look amazing!
These sound soo amazing! I love broccoli and chickpeas, I usually made a salad with them, but I have never tried blending them and making a burger, you are so clever!
I had never thought to add broccoli to a veggie burger but I love this idea! Nice combination with the chickpeas and couscous, along with the spices…these sound delicious!
Oh how interesting, I love this idea!! These look delish!
Awesome recipe!!! I tried it yesterday, only I added cauliflower instead of broccoli because I didn´t have any on hand. Such a delicious taste! Thanks for the recipe:)
I love this idea! So original, and a great alternative to the usual veggie burger. Sounds great with tahini sauce.
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I made this last night but substituted brown rice for cous cous (mistake). But the flavors were out of this world…. and its especially helpful since I got 4 bundles of broccoli in my CSA. I love your blog. So happy I found it! I made your eggplant burgers too and they were fabulous!
Thanks so much for letting me know you made the burgers! you’ve made my day
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made it recently and it tasted great. Especially awesome because they are nice and filling and you don’t have to feel guilty about it
Fantastic recipe! Easy and delicious. I used white rice instead of the couscous and it worked great.
The only thing is that instead of 4 burgers I made 10, maybe your burgers are really big…
Hahaha yeah my burgers are huge
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I can’t have couscous (can’t eat gluten). What could I use instead for these? Would quinoa work?
Definitely, quinoa would be great! I’ve used quinoa a couple of times when I didn’t have couscous on hand.
“You munch a carrot for breakfast, devour some sprouts at lunch, wrap a lettuce leaf around a stick of celery for dinner and then pop a beet in your mouth for dessert and call it a day”
…had me practically doubled over in laughter. Can’t wait to try these out, they look deeelish! Thanks for the recipe!
Have you tried freezing these? I love finding recipes that I can make ahead for those days when you really don’t want to cook!
Hi Rachel,
Unfortunately I haven’t, sorry I can’t give you any advice on freezing. But if you do try it, please let me know how it turns out.
From another site, I just made vegan seitan from simple white flour. It was so tasty! Now I’m thinking, I can make my own couscous… Of to research. Not a vegan personally, but I think meat is a passing phase to a good cook… I will make cous cous from scratch, then make this! *determined grumpy cook face* Cooking is so fun.
These are in the oven right now, and my hamburger-loving husband is actually looking forward to them! So glad I found your site through pinterest!
Hi Megan! Thanks so much for commenting! How did they turn out?
They were awesome!!! Looking forward to trying your other burgers soon!
Yay!!!! Thank you so much for letting me know! I get nervous when I know someone is making a recipe
I am more of a meat fan, but these look good tbh
Hi-
I tried these burgers last night and substituted quinoa for the couscous. The mix seemed very dry and even adding more oil the cooked burgers had a strange texture. I cup of water is listed in your ingredients list, should I have added that to the burger mix or was that on the list to cook the couscous? I would like to try it again, any suggestions?
Hi Rebecca,
Sorry for the delay in responding, I’ve been out of town. I haven’t tried it with quinoa but it’s odd that the mix was so dry. The patties should be very moist before baking. I’m not sure if we should blame the quinoa or if it was another problem. Maybe the 1/3 cup of dry quinoa equaled more when cooked than the 1/3 cup of dry couscous, leading to a drier patty? If you try it again, definitely add water if the mix/patties are dry before baking. Adding more water shouldn’t change the taste. I really want this to work for you, please let me know if you try it again.
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Waw! Your broccoli, chickpea & couscous burgers rock! They look stunning & ooh so appetizing too!
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In response to the GF and quinoa questions: I subbed quinoa for the couscous, same amount, and crumbled rice crackers (a big handful) for panko. I added garlic and a few more spices- perfection
These came out great. Thanks so much for the recipe!
These patties are a great way to get your daily veggies. They are fairly easy to make and taste so yummy! I had some trouble figuring out the right measurements (I am from Germany and don’t have any measuring-cups and -spoons YET), but they still came out great.
I am so happy to hear that you like the burgers! Thank you!
Nice recipe, which reads to me like a falafel mix on broccoli goodness. That’s ok, I like both falafel & broccoli. What I’m not crazy about the carbs in couscous, which I’ll replace w/an almond+pumpkin seed meal.
I’ll also cut calories by using a stout veggie stock instead of oil, both for the burger, & for the home made tahini.
Last, I’d swap out the chick peas w/black beans, not just to kill karbz, but also it’ll give this treat a more burger-like look-n-feel.