Gluten-Free Veggie Burger Recipe

After I was booked on Martha Stewart Living’s “Everyday Food” radio show for a conversation about veggie burgers (listen to it here!), I thought I should polish up my veggie burger repetoir. Fortunately, I recently read an inspiring recipe for Quinoa Veggie “Meatballs” on the Small Boston Kitchen blog that looked like it would translate well to a burger form.

Millet Veggie Burgers on a bed of Romaine lettuce

I used her recipe as a blueprint and ended up with these Millet Veggie Burgers when I accidentally prepared millet to use in the recipe rather than quinoa (note to self: be sure to label grains before they go into a jar in the cupboard). The millet turned out to be a nice surprise, though and made me realize that many grains would likely work in a recipe like this one.

My family found these Millet Veggie Burgers to be delicious and quite filling. Here I served a lunch of three on a bed of Romaine lettuce with Annie’s Naturals Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette.

Let me know what you think!

Millet Veggie Burgers
makes about 10 small patties

- 1 cup millet

- 2 cups water (or chicken broth)

- 10-12 large button mushrooms, cleaned and diced

- 1 tsp. olive oil

- 1 8 oz. frozen package of spinach, thawed, steamed and squeezed or excess liquid, or 1/2 bag fresh baby spinach, cooked

- 1 8 oz. frozen package of diced carrots, thawed, or one cup of shredded carrots, cooked

- 1/4 cup onions, diced

- 1/4 cup pine nuts, roughly chopped (almost any kind of nut would work well here too!)

- 3 eggs – one for egg wash

- quinoa flakes, as needed (

- 1 tsp. Cajun/Creole spice mix

- Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and bring millet and either water or chicken stock to a boil in a small pot, then lower heat to a simmer and tightly cover with a lid. Cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and set aside to cool a bit.

Set the frozen spinach and carrots on a strainer over boiling water and cover to thaw and steam the veggies. Do the same to fresh veggies, if using, to cook and soften them.

Fry the onions and mushrooms in olive oil until the onions have softened and the mushrooms have browned and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and onions. Mix in two of the eggs. Add the Cajun spice mix and the pine nuts and combine. Add the cooled quinoa and mix well. Add quinoa flakes as needed until mixture holds together. Shape the mixture into even-sized patties and place on a greased and foil lined baking sheet.

Make an egg wash by mixing together the remaining egg and a splash of water. Using a brush, paint the patties with the eggwash. Bake at 400 degrees until they are cooked through, browned and slightly crispy. This may take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.