Hungry children will love to tuck into these hearty, lightly spiced vegetarian burgers, made with wholesome ingredients and served with pitta bread, salad and a sweet red onion relish.
ingredients
serves: 4
14 ounce canned red kidney beans
2 medium red onions, about 8 ounce in total
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons light dark brown sugar
8 ounce cup mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
A small bunch of fresh mint
Salt and black pepper
To serve:
4 pitta breads
method
1. Rinse the beans well and spread them out on a tea towel to drain. Peel the onions.
2. To make the red onion relish, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan. Slice one of the onions thinly and add it to the pan with the vinegar and sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring, then reduce the heat and leave it to simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, or until the onion is softened and slightly sticky, stirring it from time to time. Then remove the pan from the heat and keep it warm.
3. Meanwhile, quarter the other onion and put it into a food processor. Clean the mushrooms, add them to the onion and process until finely chopped. Alternatively, chop them both finely by hand.
4. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet, add the onion and mushroom mixture and cook over a fairly high heat, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, or until golden and dry
5. Peel the garlic, crush it into the mushroom mixture, stir in the garam masala and flour and cook for 1 minute. Rinse, dry and chop enough mint to give 2 tablespoons. Remove the pan from the heat, add the mint and season well with salt and pepper.
6. Put the kidney beans onto a deep plate and mash them firmly with a potato masher, then stir in the cooled mushroom mixture.
7. Divide the mixture into four and, with lightly floured hands, shape each portion into a burger.
8. Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet, add the beanburgers and cook them over a fairly high heat for 6 - 8 minutes, turning them once, until they are well browned. Warm the pitta breads.
9. Arrange the burgers on a warm dish or individual plates and spoon the onion relish over the top of them. Serve with the warm pittas and a green salad.
10 users have helped to rate this recipe.
more information
It is important to dry the kidney beans thoroughly before adding them to the mushroom mixture. If the beans retain too much liquid it will make the burgers difficult to handle.
