Vegan Eggplant Garbonzo Curry Burgers

  It's Meatless Monday! I bought more eggplant yesterday because it's in season, cheap, and I just find the pretty purple to be so appealing in the produce isle. I'm pretty new at cooking with eggplant and I wanted to try something slightly different, so I searched around and found this recipe on a wonderful blog,  Gluten Free Soy Free Vegan. I made a few adjustments, like using soy free soy sauce and potato chips instead of bread crumbs. These were delicious, and we served them with homemade sweet potato chips and roasted green beans. Chris even had seconds, and he normally doesn't even finish his first serving. Woohoo!

Eggplant-Garbonzo Curry Burgers

1 large eggplant, cut into 1/4 inch thick rings
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely minced
2 tablespoons dried parsely
2 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 1/4 cups GF bread crumbs (I actually used crushed ruffles because I had them laying around)
1 1/2 teaspoons Triple S Sauce (soy free soy sauce substitute)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of cayenne

Preheat oven to 375.
Steam eggplant slices in 2 inches of water, covered, for 5-10 minutes until very soft. Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat olive oil and add onion, celery, garlic, and parsley and saute 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately add 2 Tbl water, stir, and set aside.
When soft, combine eggplant and garbonzo beans in food processor and pulse until coarsely pureed. Place in a bowl and stir in sauteed vegetables, bread crumbs, sesame seeds, lemon juice, cayenne, and Triple S. Mix until well blended. Form mixture into 8 patties and place them on an oiled cookie sheet. Bake 35 minutes, then flip and back another 10 minutes, until nicely browned and firm in the center.

This recipe produced a lot of dishes: the steamer insert, the pan, the skillet, the food processor, the mixing bowl, and the cookie sheet. So that was sort of a pain but these were so absolutely tasty that I will put them in the regular rotation for sure!!