Usually we don’t make new years resolutions, but this year we have a small one. We want to reduce the amount of meat we eat. Reducing meat from your diet apparently has some health benefits and is better for the environment. Usually our meatless dishes are meant to not include meat. This time I wanted to make a dish that is an alternative to the original meaty version.
This burger doesn’t taste like meat and isn’t meant to do so. It’s just a delicious vegetarian version of a burger and bun. This vegetarian burger is very versatile and you can experiment with different herbs, spices, sauces and toppings.
- Ingredients for 6 patties:
- 1 can cannellini beans, 250g drained
- 1 can black beans, 265g drained
- 100g shiitake, in small pieces
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ½ ts mild paprika powder or smoked paprika
- ½ ts onion powder
- Pinch of cayenne peper, more if you like it spicy
- ¼ ts salt
- ¼ ts pepper or lemon pepper
- 1 egg
- ½ cup panko, Japanese breadcrumbs
- 30g (mature) cheese, grated (made with non animal rennet)
- Flaverless oil for frying
- Optional: fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro or a bit of thyme
Fry the shittake over medium heat until golden and all the moisture has evaporated. Give them enough time so they wont be too moist for the burger patties. Add the garlic at the end to cook off the raw garlic flavor.
Rince the beans and drain well. Mash them with a potato masher and mix with the paprika powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt, pepper and optionally the fresh herbs.
When using a food proccessor, only pulse the beans a couple of times and don’t make the mixture too smooth.
Mix the egg with the panko breadcrumbs and thoroughly mix this with the mashed beans, grated cheese and slightly cooled shiitake.
You can set the mixture aside for later use or you can fry the burgers immediately. If you’re unsure about the seasoning, fry a mini patty and check the seasoning.
Divide the mixture into 6 portions and shape the burgers with your hands. Don’t make them too wide or too thin or you’ll have a hard time turning them over.
Take a skillet with a good non stick surface. Pour a thin layer of oil and fry the patties on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. Don’t touch them for the first 5 minutes.
Instead of burgers you could make little balls or mini burger patties as a snack.
For these burgers I made a mayonnaise, semi dried tomatoes and sriracha sauce. I blended some left over semi dried tomatoes into a paste and mixed 1 tablespoon of paste with 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon of sriracha.
Instead of using cheese inside the patties you could top your burger with a slice of cheese and perhaps some lettuce. The recipe for the homemade burger buns can be found here.
Make a Greek burger with feta and oregano inside the bean mixture and serve with tzatziki sauce or perhaps an Italian version with semi dried tomatoes inside the patty and some pesto with mozzarella on top!
These burgers are also very nice eaten cold, so save some for lunch.
Adapted from: How Sweet Eats – Double Bean burgers.
