I was unsure about blogging this, mainly because it didn’t turn out at all as I had planned. The original dish was supposed to be a veggie burger, however, I didn’t have some very important utensils, for example a potato masher, and therefore, my burgers didn’t work at all. Instead I was left with something I can only describe as a veggie hash, but it was delicious; so, I wanted to share my experience.

My ingredients were:

• 1 Head cauliflower
• 1 Can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
• 1 White onion
• 1 Red pepper (or capsicum as the Aussies call them)
• 1 Clove garlic
• 1tsp Turmeric
• 1tsp Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Pepper

The process was a tiny bit fiddly, but nothing too hard! I started by grating the head of the cauliflower with a box greater, into a bowl, over which I had placed a large tea towel. This tea towel was then used to strain the cauliflower to remove all of the liquid. I added 1tsp of salt to the cauliflower and left it to rest for about 30 minutes before it was ready to strain. The salt draws all of the liquid from the cauliflower.

 

In a separate bowl I mashed the rinsed chickpeas with a fork, this is when I could’ve used a masher! Once again this was a bit fiddly and made my hands hurt even more- poor me! I added the mashed chickpeas to the cauliflower once it had been strained.

I finely chopped the onion and bell pepper and minced the clove of garlic. I added these to the bowl too, along with the spices.

At this point I knew that the likelihood of me forming the mixture into burgers was incredibly slim, so in a bid to salvage everything I added the mixture to a foil-lined roasting tin. I pressed down all of the ingredients and put the tin into the pre-heated oven.

Overall the cooking took around 30 mins, and I added a sheet of foil near the end so that the top didn’t burn.

I was really pleasantly surprised by the outcome, it smelt delicious, and it was a lovely golden colour.

I had bought some GF buns from Coles, and I was still fancying a burger, so I did my best to pile the hash on top of one half. I added lettuce, avocado, hummus and a touch of mayo to the bun, topped with a squeeze of lime.

Apart from being a bit crumbly it was delicious! The spices were just right, and it didn’t have the classic cauliflower taste that I was a bit nervous about. The recipe claims it makes four burgers, however I had a lot of leftovers, which I was worried about wasting. I didn’t really know what to do with them at all.

The next morning, I had a dash of inspiration, and thought I would try some with sausages and toast, which is where the name breakfast hash came from. I chopped up a GF garlic and herb sausage and mixed it through as I reheated the hash in a saucepan, the juices from the sausages made it even tastier.

The following evening, I was making a veggie stir fry and instead of rice, once again, I thought this would be a good opportunity to use some more leftovers. It worked as a great carbohydrate replacement.

So, after a bit of experimenting I managed to find a few dishes that worked well with my mystery concoction. It was all delicious, I was really surprised. However, I think if you had a potato masher I’m sure the burgers would have actually been delicious. I will link the proper recipe below!!!

Happy burger (hash) making. x

https://tasty.co/recipe/cauliflower-chickpea-burgers