Veggie Mash Burger Recipe:

• 2 cups of mushrooms, diced
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 cup of Veggie Mash (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, or Gluten Free breadcrumbs
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• Dash of onion & garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

In a large mixing bowl, mash the black beans with a hand masher, keeping some large chunks.

Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix well.

Using a dry measuring cup, tight pack and drop a 1/2 cup of the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper.  Flatten to the size/shape of a burger.  If the mixture does not hold its shape, add a little more bread crumbs.

Place a non-stick, ceramic pan over medium heat and add 2-3 Tbsp. of Olive Oil.

Once the pan is heated, cook each Veggie Mash Burger 3-5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and a crust has formed.

Enjoy immediately.  These can be cooled and then put in the freezer for a later time.  To reheat, place them in the over at 350 degrees for approximately 8-10 minutes.

Veggie Mash Recipe & Directions: 

• Visit your grocery store and find 15-20 different organic fibrous vegetables to buy. (See exactly what we used below)
• Wash and clean them.
• Put small batches of the veggies in your food processor and break them down to a pulp.
• Transfer the small batches to a large mixing bowl and continue until all your veggies are broken down to a pulp.
• Mix well

Our veggie mash consists of all the veggies in this photo:

1. 1 beet with greens
2. 3 asparagus spears
3. 3 celery sticks
4. 6 small Brussels sprouts
5. 1 small zucchini
6. 1 small broccoli bunch
7. 3 carrots with greens
8. 1 small Bok choy
9. 5-6 Kale leaves
10. 1 handful of spinach
11. 2 Swiss Chard leaves
12. 1 wedge of cabbage
13. 1 wedge of red cabbage
14. 1 handful of sugar snap peas
15. 1 handful of green beans
16. small bunch of fresh parsley
17. small bunch of fresh thyme
18. small bunch of fresh basil

You could also use:  mint, cilantro, dill, fennel, radish with greens, parsnip, yellow squash, kohlrabi, fenugreek, cauliflower…

The remainder of your Veggie Mash can be stored in glass mason jars in the fridge or freezer. Or try using it to make our Veggie Mash Omelette or Veggie Mash Salad.

We are giving credit to world renown autoimmune expert Dr Datis Kharazzian for the ‘veggie mash-up’ recipe.

“You can’t truly call yourself “peaceful” unless you are capable of great violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless. Important distinction.”~ Stef Starkgaryen

This also applies to our immune system. We want it to be strong and resilient and capable of great ‘violence’ when it comes to certain disease producing microbes and invaders. As well, we want it to have an appropriate response and for the most part to be peaceful, but not harmless and ineffective. This type of peacefulness is particularly important when it comes to the relationship between our immune system and our own tissues, called immune tolerance. Unfortunately, we are seeing great harm and loss of tolerance to self, secondary to immune hypervigilance or loss of tolerance such as in autoimmune diseases like Lupus, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Celiac Disease among 200 others. The field of immunology recognizes three types of tolerance: oral tolerance, chemical tolerance and self-tolerance.

With autoimmune disease, self-tolerance has been lost and the body is attacking its own tissue. Most people with autoimmune disease will see loss of tolerance in all three areas including oral and chemical, finding themselves reacting to foods and chemicals that didn’t used to be problematic for them before.

If you learned that you have lost tolerance to many foods you will be guided by your doctor at NMR through process-oriented medicine approach on how to navigate this time of high reactivity and restore immune tolerance. Loss of tolerance varies greatly among individuals. Trouble shooting is always multi layered and diet is only one piece of the puzzle.

Microbiome (state of your healthy bacteria-particularly within your gut) diversity is critical to healthy immune tolerance. The more we limit our diets the more you will reduce your diversity which in long term is harmful to immune health. Achieving microbiome diversity is the first step towards restoring immune tolerance and vegetable variety has greater power than any supplement in shifting our microbiome in a positive direction. It is important to understand that vegetable variety, even more so than quantity, is key in this process.