Quinoa Burgers

It's no lie when I say that I'm slightly obsessed with quinoa. It is such an amazing teeny tiny little seed that is sooo easy to cook and packs an enormous amount of protein and happy healthiness! I just love it! A couple of weeks ago, we were looking for a place to eat by the hotel we were staying at in San Diego. We randomly discovered this little fast-food burger joint called "Burger Lounge." It is this amazing restaurant that prides itself in providing fast yet healthy burgers from products that are produced in a sustainable environment. Their cows are grass-fed (yup, that means no chemicals, grain, corn, etc...just green grass)! We were so happy to see that they offered a vegetarian burger: the quinoa burger! I was so excited to try it as my obsession with all things quinoa is in full effect! Let me tell you, it was great! Even our meat-eating homies thought it was great (FYI they absolutely loved their juicy burgers, too, and said there was a noticeable difference in their meat experience). We highly recommend you guys trying out the Burger Lounge!

Needless to say, I have been inspired to recreate it. Yesterday, we were all hanging out and drooling over our two week old memories of these burgers that today I couldn't get it outta my mind. So I came up with my own quinoa burger inspired by Burger Lounge's. And...it's pretty amazing!

Ingredients

(these are rough estimates as I don't really measure when I cook):

-1.5 cups of cooked quinoa
-1.5 cups of garbanzos
-1/2 cup panko crumbs
-1/2 cup of defrosted spinach
-2 carrots
-1 clove of garlic
-dash of salt and pepper
-1 tsp. cayenne pepper
(next time I will definitely add an egg to keep the mixture together)
*this makes 4-5 patties, of course depending on thickness and width.

Directions
1. Ideally, your food processor won't stop working when you have everything packed into it :(
And you will be able to simply add all ingredients to it, pulse and voila! If this unfortunate event doe happen to you or you don't happen to have a food processor, don't worry! You'll just have to mash! I was planning on leaving aside 1/2 cup of quinoa and 1/2 cup of garbanzos aside anyway to make it more textured, but alas, 'twas not necessary.

2. Spray your pan with EVOO. You can either form your patties by hand or use an ice cream scooper and flatten with a spatula. Once your patties are on your pan, resist temptation to move and flip. Wait until browned and flip!

3. Optional: I made a Greek yogurt dressing for our burgers and I looooved it. (About half a cup of Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lime, a bit of chopped cilantro, minced garlic, and some green onions). We used this to top the burgers (in lieu of mayo on the bread, too). Top your burger anyway you'd like: we did romaine, tomato and cucumbers and lots of that yummy Greek yogurt sauce!