Green Onion and Sesame Tofu Burgers

I have been thinking about burgers lately. Not beef hamburgers, but about meatless patties. When I was in high school, I practically lived on Gardenburgers and Boca Burgers. Then I matured and realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life eating frozen, packaged food (but not until after I ate about 203948 Lean Pockets and frozen dinners in college.)

Now that I’m a ripe old 25, I decided to try and create my own burgers out of tofu. And rice. And an egg, to bind it all together. I was desperately hoping the patties wouldn’t crumble to pieces when I put them in the pan… and they didn’t! I’m so excited to try different flavor combinations using the tofu-rice-egg base.

I usually have a big pot of rice ready to go at all times. Lately I’ve been doing about a 2:1 ratio of white to brown, cooked up together in the same pot. That’s what I used here, although I’m sure purely white rice would work really well. I’m not so sure about purely brown rice, because it’s not as sticky, but I’ll leave that for future investigations (or you could try it and tell me how it is!)

These would be great on a bun with a little hoisin sauce and thinly sliced Napa cabbage, or alongside Asian Slaw Salad

Recipe
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
16 ounces firm tofu, pressed to remove excess water
1/2 cup cooked rice
3 tbsp chopped green onion
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 egg
a few tablespoons vegetable oil, for cooking

Chop the tofu into small pieces, then put into a large bowl and squeeze with your hands until smooth.
Stir in remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Swirl the pan so the oil is distributed evenly.
Pat about 1/3 cup tofu mixture between your hands to form a patty. (Bite-sized burgers are fun too!)
Place in the pan and cook, 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden and firm.

Makes 6-8 burgers.