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Vegan Bean Burgers

I love my burgers but every so often fancy something a bit different and beans allow you to add so much flavour they make a great substitute. They'd be no good for me though if they didn't feel a bit naughty so I've been experimenting for ages to get something that has that satisfying bite I'm used to. This method manages to achieve that and just taste so good.

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They match so well with a sweet sauce like my sweet chilli satay

Ingredients

Serves 2

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  • 1 400g carton black beans

  • 1/2 medium onion

  • 2 garlic cloves

  • 15g panko breadcrumbs

  • 1 tbsp plain flour

  • 1 tbsp pickled jalapenos

  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme

  • 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

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For the sweet chilli satay

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  • 25g peanuts

  • 2 tbsp olive oil

  • 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Method

So the first and most important part of this is to drain your black beans then spread them on some baking parchment on a tray and bake them in the oven at 160c (320f) for 15 mins. This will dry them out and enable you keep that proper burger bite.

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Now dice up the onion and garlic really small and sweat the onion in a tbsp of oil for 6 mins then add the garlic for another 3 so both end up nice and soft. Not having the hard raw ingredients in the burgers will help them stay together.

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Put the beans in a large bowl and mash them with a fork until they are about 50/50 on completely mashed beans and just broken up ones. Once that's done mix the softened onion and garlic with the beans (including the oil they sweated in).

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Next add in the breadcrumbs and the flour and give it a good mix. The mixture will look quite crumbly at this point but the oil from the onions and garlic will allow it to bind once the other ingredients are in. So for that we next want to add in the dried thyme and smoked paprika as well as the jalapenos diced up nice and small. The pickling liquid covering the jalapenos will give you all the liquid you need to bring these together.

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Mix it all well and then just using the heat from your hands and a fair bit of pressure form the mixture into two patties, making sure they don't get bigger than the buns you are using. Bean burgers are always quite delicate so you don't want them sticking too far out the sides or you 'll end up breaking bits off as you eat them.

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Once you have two patties let them sit in the fridge for 20 mins or as long as you need just to let the flour and breadcrumbs do their work and glue it all together.

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When you are ready to cook drizzle the put the burgers on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little veg oil to crisp up the outside. Bake at 190c (375f) for 10 mins on one side then turn and give them another 10 mins until done.

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Serve in buns with some nice crisp lettuce and tomato and a nice sweet sauce as the sweetness goes so well with these.

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To keep the vegan side of things going you can use my Sweet Chilli Satay that I served with these, just get all the ingredients and whizz up in a blender until it's smooth. It's a great counterpoint to the smokiness of the burgers.

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