I always have fun making things with mushrooms. They have a really neat texture and taste really good. They also make a wonderful meat substitute. I use them for my chopped liver recipe, and now I’m using them for burgers.
Burgers are just one of those foods that it’s really hard to live without. McDonald’s restaurants have done a fantastic job of popping up all over the place. Even in Israel, they’re everywhere. For a while it was hard to find a kosher McDonald’s in Israel, but it has gotten much easier. My kids use to love going there and getting Mac Royales (aka Quarter Pounder). When my kids turned veg, I needed to come up with an alternative. Hence, my recipe for Mushroom Burgers:
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Mushroom Burgers
These are great for Passover, when you are looking for something to eat. Just switch out the bread crumbs for matzo meal.
Ingredients
- olive oil - 2 tablespoons
- onion - 1 large, chopped
- mushrooms - 1 1/2 containers
- cashews - 1 cup
- ketchup - 1/2 cup
- bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
- salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Instructions
- Heat oil in a frying pan to medium heat.
- Add onions and mushrooms and cook until onions translucent and caramelized. If the pan starts to dry out, you can add water.
- Remove from heat and let cool.
- Place cashews in a food processor and process until coarsely ground.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until blended
- Shape mixture into patties and grill on each side for about 10 minutes.
- Serve.
The truth of the matter is that once you have the main ingredients down, you can season it however you like. In Israel, I’ve seen a lot of restaurants that put parsley in their burgers. I’m not that into that, but if that’s what floats your boat, go for it.
A nice thing about making burgers like this is that you don’t have to worry about undercooking them. None of the ingredients actually need to be cooked to be consumed and there is totally no worry of salmonella. Back in the day, that’s something that I always worried about when going to some of those fast food burger places.
I’ve bought some of the vegan burgers that they make in Israel, and my kids like these better. I’m not sure if it’s because they look more like hamburgers because they get the dark color from the mushrooms or if they just like my cooking better. Those hambergers fall apart easily. Mine seem to stay together nicely.
Hamburgers are among those foods that often bring us happy memories of childhood. These burgers provide those memories without the ham … uh, beef.
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How interesting! I might just try that 🙂
Howdy from the Galil! We are making these for dinner tonight.
Howdy from the Shomron! How did they come out?