This recipe tops the Teriyaki Edamame Burgers with grilled fresh pineapple, crispy green onions, and an Asian-inspired slaw.
A Trip to Japan
A few years ago, I thought it was a good idea to go to school full-time while working full-time as a librarian and almost full-time doing contract work for a search engine. (In case you now think I live in an alternate universe with 36 hour days, you should know that both my classes and my second job were online.) I just wanted work experience! I was in a competitive field! Also, if you have two full-time jobs, if you lose one, guess what? YOU STILL HAVE A JOB!
While the schedule was just a wee bit of a drag, the bonus was that having 3 full-time incomes in a household with no children and very few expenses meant that our fun money budget was huge. So when I checked airfares to Osaka on a whim one day and found a crazy good deal, we booked ourselves some tickets and went to Japan.
Japan! Best trip ever! I have loved Japan for as long as I can remember. I think it's because I love absurdity and the people of Japan have a deep appreciation for the absurd. Japan is a place where you can buy vegetable juice-flavored Kit Kats. It's a place where they put slices of cheesecake inside crepes. It's the homeland of Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty. Actually having the chance to go there was completely surreal and wonderful and we decided that we would go back every year.
Which, of course, didn't happen. The whole 2 full-time job thing didn't last very long because sometimes you have to put sanity ahead of money and awesome trips to Japan.
Finding things to eat in Japan presented a bit of a challenge. It's one of those countries where food that seems like it would be vegetarian often isn't. We planned most of our meals in advance with the help of Happy Cow, but sometimes that didn't work out and we ended up grabbing trays of veggie sushi at convenience stores or getting veggie burgers at fast food restaurants. And those veggie burgers were pretty good!
About the Recipe
Japan does all kinds of crazy things with burgers. The veggie burgers we had were pretty standard, but if you're more meatily-inclined, you can get burgers topped with spaghetti or squid ink ketchup. Burgers made with rice patties instead of buns are also a thing in Japan. I sat with this idea for a while and finally decided to tackle it on my blog, except I wimped out and made the rice patties the patty instead of the bun. (I think it's better this way for everyone, really. Do you really want a burger between two rice patties? No, you don't.)
Plain rice would be pretty meh, so I threw in some edamame too. Unlike other beans, edamame doesn't form a paste when it's mashed, so these burgers do have a tendency to crumble a little bit if you're not careful when handling them. To give them a boost of flavor, I brushed them with a teriyaki glaze as they cooked. And because a burger is really only as good as its toppings, I added grilled pineapple, crispy grilled green onions, and an Asian-inspired slaw on top. Yes, there is a lot going on in these burgers! But you really shouldn't skip any of these parts because the burger reaches maximum deliciousness with all these things combined together.
This is the last burger recipe in my summer of veggie burgers series! (It was also Chris's favorite.) In case you missed any of them, here they are:
Cauliflower Hummus Burgers with Mint Tzatziki
Lentil Mushroom Burgers
Chipotle Black Bean Quinoa Burgers with Sweet Corn Relish
Did I really only do 3 burger recipes this summer? It seemed like so many more. (Should I do fall of veggie burgers too? Winter? A YEAR OF VEGGIE BURGERS?! Hmm.)
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups frozen shelled edamame, thawed
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup teriyaki marinade, I like Soy Vay
- oil mister or cooking spray
- ½ pineapple, cored and cut into ¼-inch rings
- 4 green onions
- ¾ cup coleslaw mix
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 –6 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Pulse the edamame in a food processor until it's coarsely chopped. Transfer the edamame to to a large bowl. Stir in the rice, sesame seeds, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Fold in the egg.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the burger mixture onto the baking sheet in 4–6 mounds (4 for bigger burgers, 6 for smaller ones), then press each mound into a patty. Bake the burgers for 15 minutes, then brush with the teriyaki marinade and bake for 10 minutes more.
- While the burgers are baking, heat an indoor grill to Sear (or High if yours doesn't have a Sear setting; a grill pan works too if you don't have an indoor grill). Spray the grates with oil and grill both sides of the pineapple and onions until the pineapple is has grill marks and the onions are crispy. Break the onions into small pieces.
- Toss the coleslaw mix with the vinegar, sesame oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Place each burger patty on a bun, then top with grilled pineapple, slaw, and crispy green onions.
Erika says
OMG A SLICE OF CHEESECAKE IN A CREPE?! I just made Greek yogurt cheesecake last night. I love you. I'm going to put it in a crepe tonight. So excited.
I cannot contain myself.
Also more veggie burgers--YES PLEASE!
Kiersten says
Okay, but it's not just a slice of cheesecake! They put whipped cream in it and sometimes chocolate sauce and fruit too. And then they roll it like a cone. It's total craziness. You so need to post your cheesecake crepes on your blog now. 🙂
Erika says
Omg if I'd had whipped cream and chocolate sauce I totally would have done it!! But I went home and just did cheesecake + jam + graham cracker crumbs. And then PB&J the next day OMG Kiersten it was amazing!!!!!!!! You literally inspired my recipe of the week. Possibly month. Possibly life.
Kiersten says
HA HA! Hmm, it might be time for me to try making a cheesecake filled crepe too...
Genevieve says
I'll definitely have to try this one, especially now that I know how much I like brown rice in veggie burgers! Love the edamame and pineapple combination. So cool seeing your pics of your Japan trip too after just being there myself - we went down Takeshita street too! I found those vending machines fascinating, except when I accidentally pressed the wrong button for one and ended up with something that tasted so gross I couldn't even drink it haha
Kiersten says
Your post about Japan is open in my browser right now! I started reading it before dinner and then I got side-tracked with eating and cleaning up and all that. 🙂 I got a really gross drink from a vending machine too. I thought it was green tea; it was not, and whatever it was was REALLY strong tasting. I still remember the taste of it!
Briana Collier says
This looks absolutely amazing! I love your blog so much!
Kiersten says
Thank you! 🙂
Natalie @ Once Upon a Cutting Board says
Just getting caught up on this post now .. I love that you planned a trip to Japan so spontaneously and your collage already makes me want to go back! Especially because I didn't see nearly all the cool things it sounds like you did! Happy Cow as also helpful with us trying to find vegetarian restaurants, though trying to actually locate them on the street was another story! I think I have that same picture of Sensoji temple, although yours is much nicer with a blue sky in the background! I hope you get to go to Japan again some day!
Kiersten says
Seeing your photos makes ME want to go back! 😀 We traveled to a few different cities--Osaka, Nara, Tokyo, and Kamakura. Next time, I think I'd like to do what you did and stay in Tokyo for most of the trip because there was so much we didn't get to do there. We had the same problem finding restaurants!
SCM (SocialCafe Magazine) says
That burger looks super yummy!
rogue1 says
I'm firmly convinced that any recipe that leaves a trail of debris along your counter must be delicious!
I tried using flax eggs (I used two because one didn't seem to set the mixture very well). I don't know if it was the substitution; or that I prepped the mixture a day ahead of time; or the extraneous humidity (yes, it's still SUMMER here!); but my burgers did not hold together.
But LOLOL, I'm still going to grill the pineapple, use it as a base, add the slaw as a top flourish.....and call it my Zen Garden Teriyaki Bowl.
I do wonder though, if some rice flour, or molasses in the recipe would make them hold together? Or miso?
Kiersten says
I use flax eggs a lot, but I've yet to have luck using them in a veggie burger. But I tend to like veggie burgers with a little more substance to them--ones made with pureed beans or veggies would probably work with a flax egg, but I like to have bits of grains and veggies and beans in mine. 🙂 If you're not opposed to white rice, I'd sub sticky rice or sushi rice for brown rice next time and see if that holds together better!
rogue1 says
The flax egg worked great in the mushroom lentil burgers, and I like my veggie burgers textured as well. It's a work in progress with my family though. My rice was pretty firm, so next time I will cook it more. My husband just decided that they were sloppy joes.
Kiersten says
Let me know how it goes! 🙂
rogue1 says
And yes, to more veggie burgers. I love to take them work, and eat them in the cafeteria, and have the kids go..."What IS that?"
Kiersten says
I'll have to think of some ideas for fall and winter. 🙂
rogue1 says
Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Natan says
This burger is absolutely amazing! I am addicted 🙂