Raw Vegan Hemp SunBurger from Ani Phyo's "Raw Food Essentials"

Click here for Raw Vegan Hemp SunBurger Recipe from Ani Phyo.

I saw an episode of Ani Phyo on Andrew Zimmern's Show, Bizarre Foods, via Ani's website and  thought Hemp Sunburgers sounded fun.  Honestly, I don't really make raw food burgers much.  I either don't have the ingredients on hand or just don't want to wait for them to dehydrate.  Or what if I wait and they just taste like soggy flax?  Yeah, I do eat weird food, but partially wet flax seeds (the mixture that I use for flax crackers) still kind of creeps me out in it's wet, gelatinous form.  This recipe has only 1/2 cup of flax seeds though, and has normal ingredients like sunflower seeds, onion, and celery.  There isn't much hemp seed either.  The only thing I don't keep around the house are red peppers.  Not because I don't have undying love for them, but I mostly buy organic, which means I don't buy 4.99 a pound red peppers!!  Or I wait until they appear in our garden.  However, this may have taken only one pepper, so still not expensive.  This is from Ani's "Raw Food Essentials" book.

Some ingredients for the "Raw Vegan Hemp SunBurger" from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials book.

Lucious Red Bell Peppers.

This is a simple recipe.  You chop up your peppers, onion, celery and throw in mixing bowl. Add your ground sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and ground flax, spices and a bit of water.  You mix.  Yep, Finished!!  Make your little patties.  Mine are not perfect little round burgers, but rugged individualists  :)

Plop in the dehydrator  for about 4 hours.  

Red Peppers.  Can be pricey organic, but you may only need one if it's a good size.

Celery.  I always buy organic.

Raw Organic Sunflower Seeds. You can buy in bulk.  I ground the Sunflower seeds with the Flax Seeds in the Vita-Mix before adding.

Organic Onion.  Inexpensive when you buy in bags.

Red Peppers and Onion.

Hemp Seeds. I use Nutiva Brand usually and buy in bulk from Amazon.  Zero shipping and use the "Subscribe and Save" Program.

Whole Flax Seeds.  Also buy in bulk from co-op, online raw stores, or from the local health food stores.

Flax.  You can use either dark or golden variety.  I grind them in the Vita-Mix.

In KitchenAid Mixer. Takes a few seconds to mix.

In KitchenAid Mixer.

After water is added.

Hemp Burger.  My uneven creation.

Wet Hemp Sunburger.  You can make them nice and even if you are that kind of girl (or boy).

Wet, Undehydrated, Raw Vegan Hemp Sunburger.

I play messy though.  Chunky, oddly shaped, messy girl.

And they are done!!  Hemp Burgers.

Finished Hemp Sun Burger.  They did get a nice "cooked" texture on the outside.  And the inside wasn't "mushy flax" but nice softer veggie texture.  I LOVED these little patties.  They really did resemble a regular (cooked), veggie burger.  She had a homemade mustard recipe also, which was simple, except that I had zero mustard seeds soaked!

Hemp SunBurger.  The Red Peppers, Carrot, and Celery make it so pretty!

These were a big hit.  Hubby had already made some other food as he wasn't planning on actually wanting to eat just Raw Vegan Hemp Sunburgers, but he couldn't stop eating them!!  He actually loves a lot of the raw stuff.  He is always wondering what I am concocting sometimes with a  puzzled look.  But overall, he digs raw food.  Doesn't mean he's going to ditch his Vegan Diner Food, but it definitely compliments it!  And really pretty easy to make & inexpensive.  And with the weather getting nicer, that means the Square Foot Garden and Zenning out the Slugs will happen again soon.  I do hope they are kinder to me this year.  So Red Peppers soon and a little bit of running.  Went about 3 miles tonight, in my Fearless Five Fingers (the ONLY reason I run).  Felt good.  Sometimes I wish for a darker complexion so I could actually do the sun, but it's too late to change that!!  So I will never be an OCD runner, as I just won't spend that much time in the sun.  And I won't run in the dark without a Posse. 

Above is the clip of Ani Phyo on Andrew Zimmern's show.  This is a stretch for him because he isn't really a health conscious person!  It's funny that it is on "Bizarre Foods" when it's just stuff that grows out of the ground like onions and celery.  I always think of Fruit Loops as being more "bizarre".  While not "Bizarre",  I don't know that the Hemp SunBurger is the most "normal" food out of all of her dishes, but Kudos to her for sharing a "new" type of burger.  I always think when something is named "Burger" that there may be an expectation that it is supposed to emulate a "beef" burger.  These Hemp Sunburgers are really tasty on their own and my hubby loved them as well (but he doesn't eat beef burgers either).  Click here for Raw Vegan Hemp SunBurger Recipe from Ani Phyo.

And a message from Dick Gregory:

Do you guys have Ani's books?  Which recipes are your favorites? When you make "raw burgers" do you make the raw bread, mustard, mayo, the whole works or just the burger itself?