Chickpea Veggie Burgers w/Dill Havarti & Honey Mustard on Homemade Focaccia Bread

For the focaccia bread: (This is a recipe from Baker Bettie’s website. She is an amazing baker and I’ve made this focaccia bread many, many times. It is really delicious and easy to make too.  I adapted it slightly – see note 3)

1. Add the bread flour and all-purpose flour to a large mixing bowl. Add room temperature water and mix around with a spoon until the water is mixed with the flour.  At the end, ditch the spoon and use your hands to finish mixing. The dough will be shaggy – sticky and wet. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours on the counter. I usually let this sit for 2 hours – I think the bread tastes better when you do this.
2. After two hours, remove the plastic wrap and add the olive oil and yeast. Pinch and fold the dough so the olive oil and yeast are combined – this should only take a minute or so. Next, add the salt over the top of the dough and pinch and fold the dough again until everything is well combined. Should take a couple minutes here.
3. Cover dough in plastic again and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, add a tablespoon of olive oil to a 9x13 baking dish and spread it around to evenly coat the whole dish. I also spray non-stick spray to the bottom and sides. I know it seems like overkill, but I’ve made this bread many times in many ways. I found without the addition of the spray the bread was difficult to get out of the pan.
5. After the baking dish is coated, transfer the dough to the dish. Gently press the dough so it reaches the corners of the dish. If the dough doesn’t stretch out, let it sit a little while longer (10 minutes maybe) to relax and then spread to the corners.
6. Cover the dough in plastic and let it sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. I usually leave it on my kitchen counter. My kitchen gets cold in the winter so when I make this bread in the winter months, I stick it in the microwave overnight.
7. The following day remove the plastic wrap and the dough should be bubbly on top (see video and pictures)
8. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees for about 45 minutes before baking. I know that seems long, but I’ve tried baking it without letting the oven heat for 45 minutes and the bread just wasn’t the same.
9. Finely dice the rosemary for the topping.
10. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the dough, add the rosemary across the top (evenly) and add a couple pinches of flaky salt to the top as well.
11. To get that signature focaccia look we need to “dimple” the dough with our fingers over the top. Press gently until the indentations cover the top.
12. Cook in a preheated oven for 18-23 minutes. Ovens are different. I would check it at 18 minutes. It’s ready when it turns golden brown. For my oven, it takes exactly 23 minutes.
13. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes, then transfer from baking dish to wire rack using a spatula.
14. Again, here is the link to Baker Bettie’s site too if you want to check it out: https://bakerbettie.com/how-to-make-focaccia-bread/  In addition to the focaccia, she has an incredible website filled with delicious recipes and is an expert baker.

For the veggie burgers:

1. Make the honey mustard sauce by combining the honey, dijon mustard and a splash of water. Mix with a whisk until fully combined.
2. You’ll need to get a colander that will fit inside a bowl. Cut a piece of cheesecloth (or use a couple layers of paper towel or a clean kitchen towel) and place in the colander. Set aside.
3. Peel your carrots and cut the tips from the top and bottom.
4. Cut the tops and bottoms from the zucchini and summer squash.
5. Shred the veggies (zucchini, summer squash and carrots) then add them to the cheesecloth-lined colander. Set aside for now.
6. Finely dice the onion. I needed about ¾ of one medium onion to make one cup of finely diced onion. Cut the onion in half, then slice into thin strips in one direction. Rotate onion and dice in the opposite direction. Run your knife over the onions a few more times to get the pieces as small as possible.
7. Finely dice the garlic.
8. Heat a small pan with a teaspoon or so of olive oil and add the onions. Cook for a few minutes until slightly browned.
9. Add a splash more olive oil to the pan and add the garlic. Let it heat for a minute and get fragrant, then mix together with the onions and cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and set aside.
10. Using a mini food processer, add one can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) to the processor and pulse it or chop it a couple of times. You want the chick peas to be more crushed than blended. Don’t blend them to a puree. If you don’t have a food processor, just use a potato masher and a bowl.
11. Wrap the cheesecloth around the shredded veggies and squeeze the water out of them. Veggies have a lot of water so squeeze ‘em good. The bowl you’ve place under the colander will catch all the water.
12. Add the chickpeas to a large mixing bowl along with the shredded veggies, the cooked onions and garlic, plain breadcrumbs, egg and salt.
13. Cut an avocado in half and spoon out one half. Chop into pieces, put in a bowl and mash it with a fork. Then add it to the veggie mix. The egg and bread crumbs are one binder and the avocado as an additional binder to help adhere the patties. I did this last so the avocado didn’t sit out and get browned.
14. Using kitchen gloves, mix all the veggie burger ingredients together until everything is well combined.
15. Form the patties and place them on a sheet pan. You can get 4-5 patties out of the mixture.
16. Cover sheet pan in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up the burgers.
17. While the burgers are in the freezer you can cut the focaccia bread to prepare to assemble your sandwiches. Just cut them into a square size that will fit the size of your patties.
18. Next, slice the dill havarti cheese with a potato peeler and put on a plate.
19. Heat some canola oil in a pan on medium heat– about 2-3 tablespoons or so. Let the oil get nice and hot, then add the veggie burgers one by one. These are fragile veggie burgers so you need to handle with care. Adjust heat to slightly below medium. Cook for 5 minutes until the bottom is golden brown.
20. After five minutes, carefully turn the burgers with a spatula. You may need an additional smaller spatula to assist with the turn. (my video shows all this well). Cook another five minutes.
21. When the burgers are golden brown on the other side, transfer to a small sheet pan. Be careful – as mentioned – even with binder ingredients chick pea burgers are going to be fragile.
22. Last thing to do is slice additional avocados to use as a sandwich topping. Cut avocados in half, spoon them out of the skin, then slice into thin strips.
23. Assemble the sandwiches. Place one veggie burger on the bottom of the focaccia bread, dill havarti on top of that, spread honey mustard on top of piece of focaccia, add sliced avocado on top of havarti, microgreens or alfalfa sprouts on top of avocado. Then put the top on the sandwich. Then eat the sandwich. Enjoy!