Easy Bean Burger

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I’ve been on a mission to find a tasty meat free burger for the summer BBQ season – if the summer arrives after its fleeting visit back in April !

I am a meat eater but try to restrict the amount of red meat I eat, I love vegetarian food so I’m happy to go meat free for half the week.

With all the fresh herbs available in my garden, I decided to use herbs to season my bean burger with just a hint of heat from a chilli.

After several tasting sessions, this is our finished burger. They are easy to make and tastier than shop bought, they also got the thumbs up from OH who is really a beef burger fan. The burgers are great for freezing so you can keep a stash ready for an impromptu barbeque around the weather.

Makes: 6 burgers (the quantities can be easily doubled)

Top Tips for making Easy Bean Burgers

• I prefer to use dried beans when I can (time permitting) because they don’t end up with lots of added salt, sugar or various chemicals. It is important to cook beans properly by boiling for 10 minutes at the beginning of the cooking to get rid of toxins that naturally occur in beans.
• Bean burgers are quite fragile compared to their meat counterparts, so it helps to refrigerate them for at least 30 minutes to firm them up

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying plus 2 tablespoons for mixing
• 1 large onion – diced
• 1 red pepper – diced
• 1 red chilli – deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped oregano
• 4 tablespoons oatmeal
• 4 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 cans of red kidney beans or approx 250g dried beans, soaked and cooked to give 500g
• Salt and pepper to taste

• Gently saute onions and peppers until soft.
• Add chopped chilli, tomato puree and cook through for a couple of minutes.
• In a large bowl, mash the beans, I like to leave them fairly coarse for a bit of texture.
• Add the onion mix, along with the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
• Form into pattie shapes, I dug out my trusty old Tupperware burger press.

• Fry for 5 minutes on each side until cooked through.
• Serve in your favourite burger bun, I gave Ted’s rolls a bit of a makeover with an egg wash and sesame seeds. The recipe link for these soft and fluffy rolls is here.
• Load your burger with your favourite fillings and your preferred sauce or pickle – OH likes to add a dash of Scotch Bonnet Sauce.

I’m entering these Easy Bean Burgers into a few challenges this month:

Lavender and Lovage’s Cooking with Herbs Challenge hosted by Karen.

Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior as these tasty burgers were made from scratch.

Credit Crunch Munch created by Helen and Camilla, hosted this month by Linzi over at Lancashire Food.

The Family Foodies challenge created by Eat Your Veg and Bangers and Mash where the theme is Al Fresco.

Recipe of the Week is a weekly blog hosted by Emily at A Mummy Too.