Arborio Veggie Burger with Spicy Vanilla BBQ Sauce. Imagine for a second that you make a burger with risotto rice (arborio), quinoa, chopped mushrooms, chiles, green bell pepper, spices, and panko crumbs. It’s hearty, packed with flavor, and vegetarian! This burger gets even tastier when you smear a healthy spoonful of vanilla bbq sauce. The whole thing is beyond delicious.
A week ago you learned about my new group, Virtual Potluck, where 12 of the 20 bloggers chosen to participate in the Emeril’s One Pot Blogging Party decided to stick together after the party and create a new group called Virtual Potluck. Since launching last week our emails have been busy with companies wanting to work with us. One of the companies was Marx Foods who sent each of us a box of goodies.
Heather’s Notes
In the box was 2 packages of 3 each Madagascar Vanilla beans, 1 package of Italian Vialone Nano Rice (Arborio type rice usually used for Risotto), 1 package of Lobster Mushrooms, 1 package of Matsutake Mushrooms, 1 package of Puya Chiles and 1 hefty package of Japones Chiles. Each of us got a little something different with the mushrooms and chiles, but everyone got the vanilla and nano rice. If you pop over to Cookistry, you’ll see what the other Virtual Potluckers brought to the party with their box of tricks and you can also check out and enter their giveaways as well. 12 chances to win gourmet goodies? Oh yeah!
I decided I wanted to use each component of the box and quickly came up with a veggie burger concept. But what to do with the vanilla. Spicy Vanilla BBQ sauce was born. Ok, maybe Steven Raichlen, the KING of all things BBQ had already delivered that brain child, but I made it my own.
Back to the burgers. I have 2 young kids, as you have probably read in past posts. They are pretty amazing foodies, but there are a few things I need to sneak by them, like mushrooms. So I figured veggie burgers would do the trick. They both enjoyed the burgers very much….(sigh of relief). The quinoa adds a nice flavor balance to the nano rice and the mushrooms give the burger a nice earthy flavor. I didn’t miss the meat one bit!!
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Arborio Veggie Burger Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups arborio rice, cooked
- 1 ½ cups quinoa, cooked
- 1 ½ cups dried mushrooms, chopped (any variety – I used Lobster & Mastutake)
- 2 puya chiles, reconstituted with boiling water and chopped fine
- ½ cup green bell pepper, finely diced
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- kosher salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup water
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 4 burger buns, of choice
Vanilla BBQ Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¼ cup unsulfured molasses
- ¼ white distilled vinegar
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp dijon mustard, grainy or smooth
- 1 tsp hot sauce, like Tabasco
- 2 tsp sriracha sauce
- 1 ½ tsp hickory liquid smoke
- ½ whole vanilla bean, slip lengthwise, seeds scraped
- kosher salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Veggie Burger
- In a large bowl combine the precooked arborio rice (leftovers work great), quinoa, mushrooms, chiles, green pepper, chili powder, salt and pepper and flour. Mix well to combine. Add the water, oil and breadcrumbs and stir just until incorporated.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat and spray with cooking spray. Using damp hands, mold about 1 1/2 cups of mixture into a patty and place in the frying pan. Try not to crowd. Get a good crisp on the first side before flipping, about 3 minutes. Flip the burger and repeat on the other side. Repeat with remaining burgers. Serve with lettuce, tomato and Spicy Vanilla BBQ sauce (recipe follows).
Spicy Vanilla BBQ Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer 10-15 minutes. Put leftover bbq sauce in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
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Notes
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Hi! I’m Heather
I’m Heather, a recipe developer and content creator based in Vancouver, Washington. I started Farmgirl Gourmet in 2006 because I believed weeknight dinners shouldn’t be boring and gourmet shouldn’t mean complicated. I’m also the co-founder of Spiceology, so safe to say I think about food for a living. Stick around for recipes that actually make it into your regular rotation.
I really love this recipe and hope you will too!
I’m so glad I found this recipe! I love quinoa and I especially love burgers so this one is definitely a keeper. The sauce looks superdelicious and very versatile so I can’t wait to try it. Many thanks!
Vanilla BBQ sauce, sounds delicious. Haven’t try it before.
I love my meat – mostly chicken though…but I am also a huge fan of veggie burgers – good veggie burgers and this one looks fantastic.
I’d make some vanilla sugar; it’s amazing in tea.
urchiken at gmail dot com
LOVE LOVE this! Have not seen aborio in anything mixes yet but it makes perfect sense with all the starch!
Vanilla in barbecue sauce sounds like a great combo to me. Then again, I’m a bit of a vanilla fiend.
Such a great recipe for veggie burgers!
I would add the vanilla to your pumpkin latte mix! Stacie_b_davis
I am just amazed at all that you do to create a fantastic meal for your family! Great job!
We’ve never seen anyone use our vanilla beans in a barbecue sauce before, but we definitely like it. This whole meal looks so delicious…can we come over for dinner?
I would make some vanilla whipped cream to go over my pumpkin pie.
Make a tincture: vanilla, cardamom & cocoa. Perfect for any bourbon or tequila drinks.
I would make homemade vanilla extract!
What a creative and delicious recipe! I too slip foods into recipes so my kids won’t notice! Great photo too, makes me want to take a bite!
Spicy Vanilla BBQ sauce…that is a new one to me! What an amazing box you received. Jealous! But you well deserve it with your awesome recipes & pics. I love veggie burgers. Can you please send some my way??? 😉
I’m a beef eater, but even I would eat that burger!
I am with Barb on this one – love vanilla and BBQ sauce!! Intriguing combination for a veggie burger – have bookmarked to try!!
That is one good-looking burger! Sauce sounds amazing too.
That is definitely an interesting sauce. I love vanilla.
Don’t know what sounds better, the veggie burger or the sauce – but together they sound amazing! Gorgeous and so creative! And vanilla for me means panna cotta or pastry cream although I do have a recipe for a Curried Lamb Stew with vanilla.
I’d make vanilla sugar.
Would NEVER have thought to put it in a BBQ sauce!
Your photo looks awesome. We BBQ a lot so I know I’ll try this sauce soon.
Vanilla BBQ sauce is intriguing. I love vanilla and I love BBQ; why not together huh? Burger looks fabulous!
I’d make homemade vanilla extract.
racblom@juno.com
I’ve heard lots of good things about Marx Foods, and your package of goodies looks amazing. And what you did with it is so brilliant!
I would make Kahlua. 😉
Ooo vanilla beans – I would divvy them up and make some homemade vanilla extract and with the other ones I would make my grandma’s Christmas Volcano cookies with a vanilla custard filling. ~Megan Pence @ Country Cleaver
I would use the vanilla beans to make Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, to serve along with different pies this Holiday season!
adb6{at}humboldt{dot}edu
I would make THIS sauce to put on THESE burgers… this sounds delicious… just have to substitue something in for the mushrooms… tofu?
Vanilla BBQ sauce. I can die happy. That sauce would be amazing on TURKEY!!!
I’ll have to save this recipe for a night when hubs is gone, but they look amazing to me!
Ooh, that BBQ sauce sounds out of this world! Gorgeous photos too!
I am going to try your vanilla BBQ sauce on chicken legs this week — sounds divine!