I didn’t take my own advice with these burgers – the one about how if you have to force something to happen, well, maybe you should just leave it. You see, I got it into my head that I needed a carrot tahini burger in my life. Needed one. If you follow me on Snapchat, you heard all about it 😛

Batch 1 was alright, but I hadn’t put much thought into the actual flavouring, so concerned was I with the texture, so it was rather bland. During the making of batch 2, I suddenly decided I was too good for my tried-and-true patty formula, and so I veered from the path… I replaced my trusty oats for lentils in the hopes of upping my protein game. And the result was edible, but veeerrrrryyy crumbly. I want to successfully make a lentil-based patty that doesn’t fall apart at the merest hint of a breeze, but it hasn’t happened yet! (Any favourite recipes you want to slide my way are greatly appreciated!)

Finally, batch 3 was the winner. Trusty oats, soft rice, and a few pulses with the hand blender for a sturdy little patty, plus tons of garlic, a little cumin & coriander, and a few spoonfuls of tahini in the batter to bring out that carroty goodness.

As much as I love my butternut squash burgers and my truffled mushroom burgers, these carrot tahini burgers offer the distinct advantage of not requiring any preliminary cooking of the carrot. You simply grate them in raw and you’re good to go, so the only thing you need to prep is the rice.

These babies are so simple. SO SIMPLE! Besides the tahini, all they really contain is carrots, oats, rice, egg, and some flavourful additions. You could actually easily make these without the tahini if you don’t have any on hand (I’ve found that you just need to add another egg), BUT – BUT – do try them with the tahini! If you don’t know what tahini is: it’s like peanut butter but made with sesame seeds, and it’s got this glorious fatty texture and bitter flavour, which might sound weird but it turns things into umami bombs of deliciousness. (Also, if you’ve ever had hummus or baba ganoush, then you’ve had tahini!)

To serve, I like to slather on some extra tahini in the form of this sauce, and then I keep the rest quite traditional. I’ve also had these with melted mozzarella, and another time with feta, and both were delicious, so really the possibilities abound!