Baked Eggplant Cannellini Burgers with Hummus

I am not a vegetarian. Admittedly, I do have a great affinity for vegetables, but I’ve never ever made vegie burgers before.

But when I saw these Eggplant burgers on the Tolerant Vegan’s blog, I wanted to make them. BADLY … it took me a few days, but I did! I tried to follow her recipe pretty closely, but I never can quite follow directions when I’m cooking.

This time I used the precious white eggplant my mom gave me. See the white one there, hiding amongst the little purple ones? I used the whole thing.  It was over a cup, but not that much.

Blending the mixture took me a while because I don’t have a food processor, just a little handi-chopper. I thought my blender would blend it TOO smooth, so I did several batches of blending … it was a messy process that I’m sure would have been MUCH easier with a proper food processor.

Baked Eggplant Cannellini Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 14 ounce can cannellini beans
• 1/2 an eggplant (should equal about 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Several fresh basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon Red Robin Seasoning (or seasoned salt)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup hummus (I bet Basil-iferous hummus would be nice in these …)
• 1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
• 1 T. pesto
• tomato, sliced for topping (optional)
• lettuce, for topping (optional)
• red onion, for topping (optional)

Hey, why do they call red onions “red”? They are not red; they are most definitely purple!

Directions:

1. Roast the eggplant by cutting it into 1/4″ slices and spraying each side with cooking oil.
2. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 on one side, then flip and bake on the other side a few minutes till cooked through.
3. Place the eggplant, onion, beans, parsley, basil, pine nuts, garlic, seasoned salt, hummus and cumin into a large bowl and stir to mix.
4. Place the mixture into a food processor and blend everything together. This step took me a LOT longer than 15 seconds … (oh if I only had a REAL food processor!)
5. Pour back into the bowl and stir in the breadcrumbs.
6. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Form into patties and place the “burgers” on the baking pan. Nikki (the Tolerant Vegan) made 4 big burgers. I like to eat little bites of things, so I made 9 “slider size” burgers.
7. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20 minutes on one side. Flip the burgers, then bake about 20 – 25 minutes on the other side, till nicely browned.
8. Serve on buns (or toasted ciabatta!) with hummus, lettuce tomato, red onion and tomato.

Someday (when I find tahini!) I would like to try Nikki’s tahini sauce on these …