And now for something completely different!

I enjoy cooking, and even love experimenting a little. I have since I was a little girl. My middle sister JC (you'll recognize her from the wedding photos) used to be the conventional cook. She'd cook typical meals, but well. I on the other hand had to grab out the Company's Coming cookbooks and find something absolutely new. In fact, like a food fashionista I dared not cook the same thing two nights in a row.

The recipe you are about to see unravel was designed by me, and not taken from a recipe book. I am a self-proclaimed meat-a-tarian. I come from a family of hunters and fishers and so I cannot claim to be a professional vegetarian chef. However, I find that most hamburgers are without taste and texture and have come to love the ever-hated but always-cheaptest-in-a-restaurant veggie burger. The problem with most I've found is they were either too dry or without taste. I may as well be eating beef. Many have been made with mushrooms and breadcrumb or tofu mixtures. They were never quite so satisfying.

Enter stage left: the chickpea. I really love chickpeas. I love the texture and the taste. You can add almost anything to them and 1/2 cup will give you a whopping 12 grams of iron. As a student, I typically don't eat well and turn anemic quite quickly so any iron I can get is a plus. So in my quest for the perfect veggie burger I knew I had to incorporate chickpeas.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu, Le Grande Veggie Burger du Canada.

The team from left to right: Fresh cilantro, 1 large white onion, mushrooms (about 5), butter (unsalted), baby spinach, two large cans of chickpeas, 2 cloves of fresh garlic, rosemary leaves, salt & pepper to taste and of course whatever hamburger buns you wish to use. Oh, and you'll need some gold old EVOO to fry them up later on.

What truly makes this veggie burger other than the chickpeas are the caramelized onions. Saute 1 large onion (white or yellow) in a pan for about 45-50 minutes to do this.

While I realize that this photo didn't turn out well, the concept is what matters. Any good "green" 21st century chef should always compost their veggie matter! In go the onion bits!

Now I'm going to teach you a trick to chopping your onion into even bits without going all Iron Chef on your onion. Cut the onion from left to right in quarter inch widths without going all the way through the onion. Go about 95% of the way through but DON'T let the knife hit the cutting board.

I tried to make it easy for you to see the cross slices. But turn the onion 90 degree and cross cut the same was as before about 95% of the way through.

Then flip the onion on its side depending on what hand you use. I am left handed so I flip the onion with the base to the right. And then cut down and voila!

Heat up a large sauce pan and add some butter! Yup, I said butter, the churned stuff without the darn salt there's enough of it in the chickpeas and we don't need anyone's heart drying up on my watch.

I wanted you to actually see me adding the onion. I think seeing my arm gives the whole activity some legitimacy don't you think?

See the consistency of the onion? They're even little bits. I'm not OCD at all. Fry little onions, fry!

Add some fresh ground pepper because what person in their right mind doesn't like fresh ground pepper, I'd like to know!

Now the process of caramelizing onions is really fairly simple as the pan and butter and onions do allll the work. The best caramelized onions I've had are made in a well-seasoned cast-iron fry pan. However, I live in a house with boys at the moment and they don't own such old-fashioned items so these non-stick ones will have to do.

As I stated it takes about 45-50 minutes to cook the onions down. They will first go translucent where at that point you then turn the heat down to medium-high and continue cooking them down until they start to look brown. If they start to stick at all in whatever pan you use, simply add a bit of water.

Mmmm brown oniony goodness.

Almost there.

They're "Eh"-Okay!

Some garlic because we get taste and ward off vampires at the same time. Unless it's Edward Cullen in which case I don't mind. I'll be your Bella, Edward! Erm..I don't think he cares for veggie burgers.

Rough chop some mushrooms when Gordon Ramsay isn't looking.

Rough chop some cilantro. I'd say I'm being artsy but really I'm just lazy.

Now I'm using a double-type steamer dealy here. I didn't know what it was before I moved here as I always used the electric ones. This is just a pan with holes over a pan with no holes with some water added. I'm steaming the chickpeas from the cans here to make the pliable.

Prior to this step, do the same thing to a handful of baby spinach. Add it on the plate then next to the cilantro and put the chickpeas in and it should take about 20 minutes to steam to perfection.

Add the garlic, spinach, mushrooms and 1 tsp of rosemary leaves with some pepper to the onion mixture and saute a bit further to get the mushrooms cooked down.

When the chick peas are done, chuck 'em into a big 'ol bowl. The boys here don't have a big baking/cooking bowl so I used the big stock pot. Whatever works, eh? Use a fork, or a potato masher to roughly mash up the chickpeas. I say rough because you can leave some whole. You could use a food processor but only do a few pulses.

Doesn't this look delightful? Probably something the cat threw up but hairballs never tasted so good. Add 2 eggs and 3/4 cup breadcrumbs to help it all stick together. Also add in the onion-spinach mixture to finish it off. Just make sure you beat the two eggs separately and stir them in quickly as the chickpeas are hot and you don't want scrambled eggs in your veggie burgers, trust me.

Add 2 tbsp. of evoo to the fry pan used for the onions and heat it up. Form the hairball mixture into some patties and add it to the pan. Fry til golden brown on both sides then you're done!

And here is the set-up. Put it on a hamburger bun of some sort, whatever you fancy. I like mustard and here I have turned the mayo in shame because it's not real mayo but devil-mayo (aka. Miracle Whip). The white creamy stuff is Canadian goat cheese and then fresh baby spinach. Serve with your favourite Australian red wine--if you're me.

To recap: Le Grande Veggie Burger du Canada.

2 cans of chick peas
1 large onion (white or yellow will work)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 tsp of rosemary leaves
2 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
5-6 mushrooms (medium sized so not button and no gigantic big ones)
1 bunch of fresh baby spinach (1 cup)
1 box of wine or whatever you fancy
A cute guy to share them with whether your husband, boyfriend, cute young son or cat.
1 all time greatest hits of The Eagles or angsty Alanis Morrisette.

BON APPETIT!