The problem with junk fast food?

Low quality food - fast food restaurants use the cheapest ingredients to keep prices on their menu as low as possible. Don't expect high quality ingredients.
High fat, low nutritional value - it doesn't do your body much good
Trans Fats - unsaturated fats associated with heart disease
Foreign ingredients - chemical preservatives that cannot be pronounced, artificial colors, and more

A Better Way

Danny and I do our best to eat clean. We use whole foods and high quality ingredients. We avoid fast food like the plague. We cook more than we eat out. When we do eat out, it's usually at an establishment that uses high quality ingredients. We indulge in comfort foods from time to time (more me than him lol).

Still, I've been making a conscious effort to make meatless meals a more regular part of our diet. In doing so, I want Danny to be able to enjoy the meal as much as I do. I could easily be pescetarian or vegetarian. I'm unable to commit to veganism because of my love affair with cheese (...even though I'm lactose intolerant).

Big Mac Veggie Burger

Ingredients

Vegan Big Mac Sauce (Makes 1/2 cup):
75g plain greek yogurt (1/2 a regular container)
¼ tablespoon water
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ tablespoon lemon juice
1 ¾ teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
¼ tablespoon olive oil
1 ¼ teaspoons white vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons French dressing
3 teaspoons pickle relish
½ tablespoon finely minced white onion*

Other:
4 soft whole wheat burger buns
1 tablespoon pickle relish
2 tablespoons white onion*
1 cup spinach
2 cheese slices (I used Cheddar Cheese Slices)

Veggie Burger (Makes 4 patties):
1 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon oil plus 4 more tablespoons for frying
1 can chickpeas 400g , drained
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 cups tightly packed breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons barbeque sauce
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Steps

1. Make the Big Mac sauce – Add all the sauce ingredients except for the minced onion and pickle relish to a bowl and mix until combined. Stir in the minced onion and pickled relish. Taste and add more seasoning if needed. Set aside.

2. Make the veggie burger batter - In a bowl (or food processor), mash the chickpeas until almost smooth. (Chickpeas will be easy to mash by hand using a masher). Then add all remaining veggie burger patty ingredients and mix (or process) until roughly combined.

3. Form and Fry the veggie burger patties - Divide the mixture into four parts and roll each into a well-combined ball. Flatten the balls with your hands as flat as you can make them. Add one patty to a fry pan on high heat with one tablespoon of oil and fry for a couple of minutes on each side until browned and crispy on the outside. Repeat this for each veggie patty. Once all patties have been fried, set them aside.

4. Make the burger – Add one burger bun base to a plate, top with 1 ½ tablespoons big mac sauce, one veggie patty, 1 slice of cheese, ¼ cup spinach, ½ tablespoon onion, pickle relish, then add the top of the bun. There you have your veggie mac burger! Repeat this step for the other burgers.

5. Serve immediately!

Notes

The original recipe is completely vegan, however I altered it to our liking.
We're not big fans of soy so we replaced silken tofu with the greek yogurt, which also happens to be jam packed with protein. And instead of using vegan cheese we used real cheese. We also used Spinach instead of iceberg lettuce. We love the greens!
The authentic vegan Big Mac recipe can be found on Veggieful.com.
You could TOTALLY buy sesame see buns and layer it to create the double-decker effect of a real Big Mac, this was lunch and we decided a single patty was enough
The recipe is trying to imitate the popular McDonalds Big Mac burger so it does contain quite a bit of salt, feel free to cut it down the to your own liking.
On that note, cut down the oil content too if you want a healthier dish.
So it's not the healthiest, low-calorie dish, but it is a great alternative, chock-full-of whole foods and ingredients when you're craving a burger

This burger is SO tasty! We both enjoyed it. It's easily one of my favs! I'll be sure to keep it in our meatless meal rotation when we're in the mood for a fast food alternative. I was nervous because Danny's not a big fan of chickpeas unless it's hummus but even he gave this burger the nod of approval.

Take a bite out of the fast food crime and give this veggie alternative a try. When you do let us know what you think.

Happy Eating!

-CN

Take A Bite Out of Crime: Big Mac Veggie Burger (Recipe)