RAW Vegan Bacon Cheeze Burger

RAW VEGAN BACON CHEEZE BURGERS

These RAW vegan bacon cheeze burgers are to LIVE for!! The burger patty is a mixture of nuts, seeds and vegetables to keep it light! That's right! I bet you didn't think light and burger could be used in the same sentence, but this burger keeps it real without weighing you down!

You will need a food processor, a mandoline slicer and a dehydrator to make these burgers. If you do not, have a dehydrator, you can either not dehydrated your burgers, which means you will have a lot more "meat," or you can use your oven on the lowest setting and tent the door. You'll have to keep a close eye on the burgers, and you'll "dehydrate" them for 1-3 hours instead of 18-24 because, well, you don't want to burn your house down.

~Burgers~

(makes 6-8 patties)

1 1/2 cups walnuts (soaked over night/ 8hrs)

2 cups sunflower seeds (soaked over night/ 8hrs)

2 large zuchini, peeled and rough chopped

1 1/2 cups chopped baby portobella mushrooms

1 cup sun dried tomatoes (rehydrated in 3/4 cup filtered water)

1/4 large white onion

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup  extra virgin olive oil

1-2 Tbl each of fresh basil, sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley or whatever herbs you like! (you may substitute dry herbs and in that case, use about 1/4 as much)

1) In a food processor, place the roughly chopped zucchini and pulse until rice sized. Add zucchini to a large bowl.

2) Then add the mushrooms to the processor and chop them to about the same size. Add them to the same bowl.

3) In another bowl add the nuts, seeds, sun-dried tomatoes and water, onion, garlic, herbs, extra virgin olive oil and spices and combine with a wooden spoon. Then in batches, start to add the mixture to the food processor and pulse. Make sure to keep the mixture slightly chunky so that it still has some chew to it. This will equal a very texturally satisfying burger experience!

4) Once all the ingredients have been processed, add them to the large bowl with the zucchini and mushrooms and stir.

5) Form the the meat mixture into large burger patties (about 4-5 inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches thick, the burgers will shrink to about half their original size) and place them on the sheets for your dehydrator. Dehydrate for 18 to 24 hours, flipping them once half-way through. I like to make the burger the morning of the day before I want them to be ready, that way I can dehydrate them all day, flip them at night, and they'll be done the next morning.

~Zucchini Bacon~

4 larger zucchini

4 Tbl bragg's or a rich sun-dried tomato water

1 Tbl sesame oil

1 Tbl apple cider vinegar

1 Tbl extra virgin olive oil

1) Combine the bragg's/s.d. tomato water, oil, and vinegar in a shallow bowl.

2) Thinly slice zucchini, using the second setting on your mandoline slicer.

3) Add the zucchini to the bowl and let marinate for 15-20 minutes.

4) Dehydrate the zucchini on the regular grated dehydrator sheets for 8-10 hours or until crispy.

~Cheeze~

1/2 cup cashews (soaked 6 hrs, you could also use raw macadamia nuts soaked for 8 hrs.)

Meat from 1 young coconut

2 Tbl nutritional yeast (if you have a thing about nutritional yeast you can use a combination of garlic, lemon juice and a little cumin and tumeric)

1/2 cup filtered water

3 Tbl extra virgin olive oil

1) Add all ingredients to a blender except for the oils. Start blending and slowly drizzle in the oil as the blender is going. This will help the cheeze emulsify. Emulsification = Creamy Goodness!

2) Try not to eat all the cheeze before you've dressed the burgers ;)

Assembling your burgers:

Before serving the burgers, place them in the dehydrator or a tented 200 degree Farenheigth oven for 30 minutes or so just to get the warm. While their dehydrating, get your toppings together. Personally, I am a crazy California kinda girl when it comes to my burgers... that's funny because I've never actually had a burger in California, I've just seen them on TV. HAHA! Anyway, in Cali they like to do it up with all kinds of crazy toppings. So obviously we have the cheeze and the bacon, but I also like to add Kim Chee, fresh onion, sliced tomato and sunflower sprouts. Ok so that's not THAT crazy but feel free to add olives, jalapeno, avocado or whatever else you like! Just have fun with it. I really hope you try this recipe and let me know how yours turn out!

Constant Healing!

Victoria Moon