When I asked my dad, a professional chef, how to make bean burgers, he jokingly suggested going to Aldi. Unfortunately, the Internet wasn’t much more helpful – pretty much every veggie burger recipe I came across used potato as the main ingredient. Considering I’ll usually eat a burger with a bread bun, and if I’m being really naughty, fries, I didn’t want the extra carbs. So I ended up with this healthy Ultimate Spicy Bean Burger Recipe you’ll love as well!
After my cauliflower base pizza was a hit, I thought I’d turn to my trusty cruciferous vegetable friend again. And it worked perfectly. Cauliflower, carrot and tomato act as super tasty glue holding the kidney beans and chickpeas together. The result? A delicious, low-carb, high-protein, slightly spicy bean burger with a distinctly Mexican feel that you can enjoy guilt-free. Add cheese, salsa, a lightly-toasted bun and a cold beer, and you’ll be the most popular person at the barbeque, buffet or family meal.
Ultimate Spicy Bean Burger Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ head cauliflower
- 5 medium carrots
- 1 tube tomato paste
- 1 small egg whisked
- 2 tablespoons flour
- ½ cube vegetable stock
- 1 bunch fresh coriander finely chopped
- 1 pinch chilli
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 medium chilli
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 can chickpeas
Instructions
- Boil up the cauliflower and carrots until soft, pour the water away, pop them in a food processor, or mash them. If you don’t have a potato masher like me, any (clean) heavy object will do.
- Stir in the tomato paste, egg, and flour, then crumble in a stock cube. Stock cubes are my secret – well, not so secret since I’m writing it here – an ingredient that makes any tomato-based dish tastier.
- Add fresh coriander, chilli powder and seasoning to taste.
- Fry the onion, garlic and chilli, then stir them into the cauliflower and carrot mixture when slightly golden.
- Toss in the kidney beans and chickpeas. You could improvise here and add sweetcorn, peas, black beans, butter beans – anything that takes your fancy. Kidney beans complement the tomato base and add Mexican flair, but seriously, anything small and bean-like goes.
- Use a spoon or spatula and your fingers to form the mixture into burger-shaped balls.
- Fry them on each side for a couple of minutes until slightly brown, handling the burgers gently, so the mixture doesn’t fall apart.
- Serve in a lightly toasted bun with cheese, salsa, rocket salad, chopped tomato, avocado or whatever you fancy.