The “Raw” Burger
No, it’s not raw meat, we said this was veggie burger week after-all, but this burger is “raw” because it has not been cooked over 118 degrees. You may have already heard of the raw foods diet, in fact, a book that I picked up a little over a year ago about this type of diet was part of the inspiration behind this site.
A raw foodie’s diet is typically a vegan diet consisting of uncooked fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and various super-foods like goji berries. It’s based on the idea that by not cooking food beyond a certain temperature, the enzymes and all the other good stuff in these foods remain “alive” and are better suited to nourish your body in this state. Thus, raw recipes that are designed to mimic the traditional favorite cooked foods like the burger pictured above will usually call for a dehydrator instead of an oven to achieve a “cooked” texture in order to avoid actually having to cook the food.
This recipe is straight from one of my favorite raw food cookbooks, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen (this burger is pictured on the cover) by Ani Phyo, which has tons of simple, tasty raw creations that I have been experimenting with over the past year like this one. But this was my first attempt at her “Sun Burgers” which came pretty well and tasted even better after dehydrating for about three hours. Phyo also lists in the book a raw Sesame Sunflower Bread recipe for the bun and even has a raw ketchup and mustard!
Ani’s Sun Burgers
from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped, about 3/4 cup
1/4 c yellow onion, chopped
1/2 c red bell peppers, chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. oregano, fresh or dried
1 c sunflower seeds, ground
1/2 c flax seeds, ground
1/2 c water
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, adding the water last. Form four balls and flatten into the burger patty shape. You can enjoy as is or dehydrate for about three hours.
My only complaint is that the bread recipe she suggested for the bun was made up of predominately the same ingredients (but in different amounts) which made the Sun Burger and the bread a bit overwhelming together. Next time I would either find a new “bun” recipe, make it an open face burger with a portobella mushroom cap or I would crumble it up over a salad.
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