Bean Burgers

This is the second in the Tuesday Night Vego Challenge, and already I’m cheating a little bit. Making this easily within the half hour relies on you having fresh or already cooked beans and bread rolls on hand. I’m starting to harvest beans for shelling now.  By the end of the summer I’ll have a big  jar full of each kind for slow cooking over the winter.

But fresh picked beans cook much much faster than older, drier ones. I used a cup of shelled, dried but fresh, Purple Kings for these – they’re the larger pinker ones in the picture – soaked for the day while I was at work (soaking removes the oligosaccharide in the skin that give beans their reputation for  fart-producing), drained,  then pressure cooked in a cup of fresh water. They took just 15  minutes to cook to very soft, but if you have older, drier beans they could take anything up to 45 minutes. Slow cookers are another good way to cook beans.   Bean Basics gives you the basics of cooking beans. You want them a little bit overcooked for this recipe.

Once you have cooked beans, the rest of the recipe comes together very fast and easy. Beans are fantastically good for you, full of protein, complex carbohydrates, fibre (both soluble and insoluble) and a whole range of vitamins and minerals.  A bean burger with no cholesterol and a heap of soluble fibre is double heart tick material.

And burgers are a great meal for hot weather.  A nice way to serve them is to set the table with all the makings – bread rolls, sliced tomato and cucumber, lettuce and rocket, fried onions, sauces and pickles, and let everyone assemble their own.

The Recipe:

Makes 4 huge patties or 6 normal sized ones. Leftovers are great for lunches.

Start with 1 cup of dried beans in the morning, soaked for the day then boiled or pressure cooked in fresh water with a good pinch of salt (beans need salt) until very soft.

Or, start with two cups of cooked beans.

Blend, puree, or mash half the beans and mix with 1 large or 2 small eggs and 2 dessertspoons of Worcestershire sauce. (I do this in my food processor.)

Mix in:

• the other half of the soft, cooked whole beans
• 1 mild onion, finely diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic crushed or diced
• 1 chili, hot or mild depending on you taste for spicy food, finely diced.
• 2 dessertspoons of wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

I use my hands to squish it all together, semi breaking up the whole beans but leaving some texture to them.

Wash your hands, and using wet hands shape the bean mix into patties.

Get a pan with some olive oil in it hot, then put the patties in and fry gently till golden.

While the patties are cooking, you can toast your burger buns if you like them toasted, and maybe melt a little cheese onto the top half. Fry some onions.  Slice some tomatoes, cucumber, and salad greens. Some home pickled beetroot goes well. Serve with any combination you like of pickles, sauces, mayonnaise, or chutney.

Do you have a  Tuesday Night Vego Challenge idea or recipe to add?