On the Menu :: Tasty Bean Burgers

We are having a bit of a healthy eating thing here in the Attic at the moment. Various reasons, one of which is directly related to the worrying tightness of my trousers, but also we are experimenting with the idea of eating a mainly vegetarian diet for the summer months. We have a very excellent butcher here in our town and still eat meat roughly once a week but there is something satisfyingly wholesome about tasty, home cooked vegetarian food.

Do you own a recipe file? I do. In my old house I had a drawer in the kitchen which was stuffed full of paper :: torn out pages from magazines, printouts from the computer/internet and scribbled down recipes passed to me by friends and family. But at some point (ten years ago maybe?) I decided to organise all those bits of paper into a file, and I am so, so, so glad that I did. That simple file has become one of my most treasured possessions. There is a mixture of printed recipes and hand written ones given to me by friends and family over the years (oh those are precious!), all the recipes I use most often, plus a fair few must-make-sometime recipes. Last week, I remembered a particular vegetarian recipe from the must-make-sometime category and searched it out to try. It was part of a page ripped out of a magazine and I ended up altering the ingredients slightly to make a very moist and tasty vegetarian burger. In fact it was such a success that I've made it again today, and thought you might like it too.

In the above picture are my beans :: a can of drained and rinsed borlotti beans. I don't think I've ever bought borlotti beans before, they are a type of kidney bean apparently. So...you need a small can (about 175g drained weight) of these beans which you need to squidge up, either the hard way (with a fork) or the easy way (in a mini food processor/chopper).

You also need to prepare about 70g of wholemeal breadcrumbs and a small handful of fresh parsley. I whizzed up a wholemeal bread roll with the fresh parsley in my mini chopper.

Put the mushed up beans and whizzed up breadcrumbs/parsley into a bowl along with 25g pinenuts and 4 scissor snipped sun-dried tomatoes (the sort that come in a jar of oil). Season well with salt and pepper.

In a frying pan, heat up one tablespoon of the sun-dried tomato oil from the jar and gently sauté a finely chopped red onion until soft (about 5 mins). Add in 1 crushed clove of garlic and 1 grated carrot and cook for another few mins.

Put your onion/garlic/carrot mixture in with your bean/breadcrumb mixture and mix together thoroughly. Once the onions have cooled slightly, I find it best to just dive in and use your hands...it's messy but gives the best results. Squish and squeeze it all together, using a resident child to help if you have one handy. Little B loved helping me in the kitchen this afternoon, he was curious about all the ingredients and thought his squishing job was pretty great.

This mixture makes four decent sized burgers, rolled into large balls and shaped into burgers in the palm of your hand.

I needed to make five slightly smaller burgers to feed my family, they worked out just right.

When you've made your burgers, you need to pop them on a plate or baking tray and get them in the fridge for an hour or two....they are pretty soft and squidgy at this stage and need some time to cool and firm up.

You can set your child labourer to work while you are waiting if you like, get them to clear up a bit and make themselves useful.

Once the burgers have been in the fridge for a bit, they are beautifully easy to cook. Just heat up a smidge of oil in a non stick frying pan and fry the burgers for about 3 mins each side until they turn golden and are hot right through. Tonight, I did something extra too....I added a thin slice of cheddar cheese to the top of each one then popped them under the grill for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Ooooo, that melty cheese was really a great finishing touch! You can then wap your hot melty burgers straight into a wholemeal burger bun/ciabatta roll with some salad and a dollop of tomato relish/ketchup.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....this is seriously good, healthy, delicious family fodder. Please do try it!

:: Ingredients list (makes 4 burgers) ::

small tin borlotti beans (175g drained weight)

70 g wholemeal breadcrumbs

small handful fresh parsley

25g pine nuts

4 finely chopped sun dried tomatoes (plus 1 tbs oil from the jar)

small red onion, finely chopped

1 crushed clove garlic

1 grated carrot

bread rolls/salad/cheese slices/tomato relish to serve

 

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Artisan Bread

Saturday Mornings

Half Way

Busy Days

Open Studio :: June 2013

Comments

[Monika]

For his birthday dinner, my son (who is turning 25, unbelievable!), wished the Attic 24 Bean Burgers... We all love this recipe and I have made it many times. It was delicious, as always. Thanks, Lucy!

[Monika]

This is one of our favorite family recipes - we call them Attic24 burgers. Are they still part of your repertoire, I wonder? We make them again and again, with roasted potatoes on cooler days, with a potato salad, or like you on a bun, in the summer. Thanks!

[Jillian Baudry]

Genius, I have now made these several times and they turn out great each time! They don't fall apart when I try to fry them, unlike my other attempts at burgers and they're just delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe!

[Joanne garratt]

Lucy, great recipe. I tried it and loved the burgers, having them at least once a week. Thanks.

[jacqui]

the tip on child labour is very helpful and the burgers where scrumptious

[eva]

ahhhhh just today i was looking for a veg burger... in particular a quinoa burger...something like i'd had in ottawa last year.... but this recipe sounds perfect, and the burgers look fantastic. can't wait to try this out.
xo
eva

[Lizy Tish]

Will definitely try! They look yummy. My husband would cringe, so I will make them for me, for my lunches!

[Linda]

I made these this afternoon, absolutely delicious.
Thank you!

[peggy white]

Yum! I'll have to give this a try. I adore lentil burgers so I'm sure this will be just as delish!
Hugs!

[Sian]

Thanks Lucy, these look delicious!
Any other of your recipes you'd like to share would be gratefully received, I'd love have a more vegetarian diet for health and financial reasons and recipes like this are good inspiration
Sian x

[elizabeth]

I just logged onto your blog to get instructions to finish the edge of my first crochet granny square blanket and found this scrummy recipe so tonight for dinner will be your burgers with crunchy side salad and homemade coleslaw. Thank you so much for a great blog - now it's back to the crochet.

[Karolina]

Dear Lucy, I love stepping by here for the magical atmosphere.I was searching for other hand made blogs but what have I done after following your blog? I've bought a slowcooker ( which is not popular at all here in Poland) and I'm happy as a crazy.Tasty, very tasty, juicy and so aromatic dishes.The stress reduced as well.Now I read about the bean burgers.Borlotti??? Never heard before.But I'm determinated a lot. 10 minutes later I already know that the borlotti beans are kind of sweet ones( maybe kids will accept it)and have other names.Haricots beans and "zurawionowa" in Polish language.Ok, I start searching for those kinds of beans.Yuppi, tesco has haricots! Love tesco.I can cook as Lucy recommend.Thanks!

[Jo]

I will indeed try it as I put on a boden shirt dress from last summer and it would not go round the top of my arms..EEEEK! Thanks, off to get beans. Jo x

[Phyl]

Thank you for the recipe Lucy, these burgers look great - I shall try ! xx

[Winwick Mum]

My husband turned veggie about 18 months ago which necessitated a re-think in my menu-planning. Now, I use meat-free products for favourite meals like shepherd's pie and can recommend Sam Stern's "Eat Vegetarian" cookbook for quick, easy and tasty recipes that work well every time xx

[Pj]

Looks yummy - must try that recipe. Thank you for sharing it. Best wishes, Pj x

[Nanita]

Oh thank you for this recipe, it looks delicious! I almost entirely cut out meat about a year ago, and I'm extremely happy that I did. Also thank you to commenter Louisa about the tip on Jack Monroe's recipes! Have a lovely Sunday :-) xxxx

[Jenny]

YUMEEEE!

[sheila 77]

Great recipe, I must try this, thanks.

[Sandra]

We are also trying to eat more vegetarian. I will definitely try it out next week. Thanks a lot

[poppysnest]

I love, love, love veggie burgers! Decided to make your burgers this eve but, as per usual, I didn't read the instructions (2 hours to harden) and so the family had a quick plan B dinner and tomorrow we'll have the burgers for dinner!! They smell yummy. X

[Emma]

Thanks Lucy. Made these this evening for my 11yr old and she gave them a huge thumbs up. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

[Anne Baselt]

What would I do without you? You are the greatest and you have a special place in my heart.

[maypole]

Looks delicious, I will be trying that, thank you.

[Marjan]

dag = day