While grass-fed meat is definitely on the Ray Peat menu, a veggie burger recipe can fit in the diet too.
There is some debate on the forum & groups as to how much meat everyone should be eating.
Issues may include…
- Difficult to digest
- Maybe too high in PUFA (like chicken)
- Too much iron
- Overly high in phosphorus
- Excessive tryptophan, methionine, cysteine
- Should eat all parts of the animal not just muscle meat
And for some like me, it just makes me feel blah – heavy on digestion, tired, sluggish, foggy in the head etc. I hate cooking with it and the smell of it. So I compromise and have mostly fish.
So even if you are a meat eater, sometimes you just might feel like a break from it. This dish is really filling but light at the same time.
Veggie Burger - Ray Peat Inspired
Equipment
- Food processor
- Oven
- frying pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups baked pumpkin
- 1/2 cup cooked veggies eg: zucchini or peppers
- 1 egg
- 2 slices gluten free bread or sour dough
- 1/4 cup potato starch
- 2 large mushrooms
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese or feta or parmesan
- 1/2 cup cooked white rice
- 1/2 large onion
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
- 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce or coconut amino soy
- 1 TBS fresh garlic or garlic powder
- 2 TBS butter
- pinch salt & pepper
Instructions
- Ok so it can be a bit all over the place, so bear with me and I will try and make it easy…
- Bake your pumpkin. I rub in a little refined coconut oil, and salt and bake on 200C (400F) for 30 minutes.
- Pull out the pumpkin and put the two slices of bread in the oven and turn it down to about 100C (200F) – you want to leave the bread in there for about 30 minutes, so it goes rock hard. (If you leave the oven up too high, it will burn on the outside and stay raw in the middle.)
- If you don’t already have left over cooked veges, then you can boil up a bit of zucchini or you might want to bake them as well with the pumpkin. Up to you. Just make sure it’s not too watery.
- While all that oven stuff is going on, chop your mushrooms and onions (peppers and garlic – if using.) Fry these up with all spices in the butter in a frying pan, over low heat until soft. Then leave it in the pan until later.
- When your bread is crispy (but not burned!) take it out of the oven, break it up into smaller pieces then whack it in the food processor to make breadcrumbs. This may take a few minutes. Pour into another bowl when done. If you still have any chunky bits, just pull them out.
- Measure out your potato starch and be ready to bring everything together.
- Back in the food processor, add your pumpkin, the egg, Worcestershire sauce and a bit of salt and pepper. Whiz until well combined. (At this point it looks like a bit of a sloppy mess, but don’t worry, the dry ingredients of the breadcrumbs and a bit of flour help bring it all together.)
- Pour the pumpkin mix into a bowl. Then add the rice, cheese, fried mushrooms etc And gently stir through. Next go the breadcrumbs and flour last of all. It starts looking a bit more pliable and you feel a great sense of relief!
- Clean out your frying pan and grab a bit more butter (or coconut oil.) Put it on medium heat.
- So to form your burger, wet your hands and scoop out a heaped tablespoon full of the mix and mold into a round burger shape and place in the heating pan. Keep doing this until all the mix is used up.
- Fry on each side for about 3-4 minutes – it should be browning on the outside.
- Then serve however you like your burgers.
Notes
Maybe serve with…
- sweet chilli sauce/tomato sauce
- slow fried onions
- beetroot slices
- lettuce
- tomatoes
- slice of cheese
- pineapple
- grated carrot
This is far more involved than I usually like my cooking, however it is much easier if you just have pre-cooked pumpkin, rice and veges from previous days. I also make a big batch of breadcrumbs that keep for about 2 weeks, so I don’t have to make them at the time.
You can also experiment and use different things in it, however I believe the breadcrumbs, flour and possibly the egg are pretty much essential for it to work.
Happy cooking and I’d love to see your pictures of this veggie burger recipe if you make it!
Kristy x
PS: for more great recipes, grab a copy of the Zen Beach Diet!
gluten free bread are definitely not Ray Peat inspired they are generally highly processed and most use some or of gum and or other chemicals….
Also those who find meat hard to digest usually have low stomach acid.
Great recipe, Kristy! Most of the ingredients in store bought “veggie burgers” are truly frightening — soy protein, canola oil and gluten are not health foods. Really pleased to see this healthful alternative. Sounds delicious too!
Thanks Kyla! Yes it’s interesting because I follow the Ray Peat way of eating and most veggie burgers out there all have beans or other grains in it which we don’t eat. (Except a bit of white rice and some sour dough bread or gluten free.) So it was fun to make it work with what we do eat. Somehow too the Worcestershire sauce makes it a brown colour that actually looks like meat. So it’s quite weird but yum nonetheless. Thanks for sharing it, much appreciated.
Hi Chris, yes certainly have to be selective in getting the right product when it comes to bread and actually it applies to anything really – quality of meat, eggs, milk etc. Sour dough is better when you can find one that just has flour, salt, water and starter.
Hey Chris, yes also true and also just a high meat diet can result in other negative effects from the by-products of meat digestion and/or too many of certain amino acids. Also too many PUFAs depending on the type of meat you’re having. So a balance of foods is always good.