Grilled Eggplant Pizza Burger

Vegan Pizza Burger

serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil of choice for grilling
3-4 slices of seitan
4 thin slices of eggplant
4 thin slices of red bell pepper
4 pitted black spanish olives, sliced
Spinach leaves
4 slightly flat hamburger buns
1 tbsp vegan butter

Sundried Tomato Sauce
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes (drained from any oil)
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
salt to taste
water as needed

Vegan Melted Cheese
1 tbsp vegan butter
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp rice or soy milk (plus more if needed)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Prep the Sundried Tomato Sauce first by blending everything in a food processor or blender. Add a little water as necessary to get the blades moving. Set aside.

Grill the seitan in a small frying pan with a little oil until all sides are crispy. Lay the slices on a paper towel to drain from any excess oil & liquid.

Heat up some oil on a grill plate or a large frying pan and grill the red bell pepper and eggplant until charred. (I would recommend doing the bell pepper first, as it takes a little longer to cook than the eggplant)

Follow the same procedure as the seitan and transfer to a paper towel to drain the oil/liquid.

To prep your ‘melted cheese’ simply melt the vegan butter in a small sauce pan. Add the flour and whisk until it forms a roux. Slowly begin adding the milk, stirring continuously after each addition until it begins to resemble melted cheese. Reduce the heat and whisk in the nutritional yeast, lemon juice and spices until well combined. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk if needed. Remove from the heat.

Grill the buns on both sides some vegan butter. (I flattened mine out a little using a spatula to resemble ‘pizza bases’.

To assemble, neatly layer and assort some spinach, eggplant, capsicum, seitan slices, olives and a little drizzle of the melty cheese on the base. I double layered mine so used half the ingredients on one layer, and the rest on the top layer (However, you could just do one layer!)

Enjoy!