Carrot Cashew Edamame Burgers - Our favourite veggie burgers ever!

I created this burger haphazardly, a last minute meal idea using whatever I had on hand. But the results were so good that they've become a staple in our house. And they've completely replaced our previous go-to veggie burger recipe.

At first we ate them as burgers - with a burger bun and classic burger toppings, but over time we've grown to prefer eating them as is. The boys dip them in ketchup, and Adrien and I eat them alongside veggies or salad. They're also really good dipped into sriracha mayo. Just saying.

My favourite method for cooking these: use an ice cream scoop to quickly plop out 20 mini burgers balls, pat them down into burger shape and pop into the oven.

Sometimes I grind the mixture really well for smooth, uniform patties, other times (like the picture above) I only chop the ingredients coarsely - both versions are delicious.

Ok on to the recipe.....

Carrot Cashew Edamame Burgers - serves 4

1 onion
2 medium-large carrots
3 Tbsp olive oil *
1 tsp salt
few cracks black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1  cup raw whole cashews
1 cup frozen shelled edamame beans
2 Tbsp whole grain flour (or any  kind of flour you have on hand)
1 egg (this can be omitted if you want to make it vegan - the patties do break apart easier without the egg but are still just as delicious) 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1. In a food processor, pulse chop the onion and carrots to a medium-fine chop (don't bother cleaning the food processor yet, you'll use it again at the end).
2. Sauté the chopped onion, carrots and salt/pepper in the oil on medium heat for around 7-10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft.
3. Add the garlic powder, whole cashews and frozen shelled edamame beans, and sauté another 3-4 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
5. Return the sautéd veggie-mixture to the food processor and process until the edamame beans and cashews are finely chopped.
6. Scoop the mixture out of the food processor into a mixing bowl. (you can taste and adjust the seasoning as desired here). then stir in the 2 Tbsp of flour and 1 egg.
7. Form the mixture into desired sized patties.
I like to use my ice cream scoop, pack it with filling, then plop out a ball on a well-oiled baking sheet and just tap the ball down into burger shape.
Now you can either pan fry them in a bit of oil, or bake them. If baking (my preference) - generously oil a nonstick baking sheet and bake the burger patties for 15 minutes on one side. Then flip them gently, and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or so.

Notes
*you can certainly use less oil here, but I like to be indulgent with my oil use when cooking vegan/vegetarian. I even like to drizzle the tops of my burgers with a bit of extra oil before baking... because it just makes them even better (but not necessary).

You can eat these as a traditional burger in a bun, or on their own - they're especially good served with a sauce (like chimichurri, or sriracha mayo or plain yogurt, or just plain old ketchup as my kids like to do).

ENJOY!!