My two besties from university came over for dinner the other day; I just love it when I get to cook for my friends! Magali and Marie – who shall remain nameless, hello ladies! – are both meat eaters so I wanted to surprise them with some vegan delight! And I also want to show them (especially Marie, who has always been a bit skeptical) that eating clean – and vegan to a certain extent – is tasty, creative, filling and nutritious.
I’m not trying to brag here, but I totally nailed it! What you can do with vegetables, legumes and cereals is impressive! Meat is totally overrated!
Ingredients (for about 6 burgers)
Kidney beans, a can
Sweet potatoes, 2 medium
Quinoa, cooked, 250 grams
Onion, 1
Parsley, dried, 2 teaspoons
Chili powder, 1 teaspoon (or more if you like spicy food)
Cumin, 2 teaspoons
Oat flour, 2 tablespoons (you can also use breadcrumbs or rice flour)
Salt, pepper
Pumpkin seeds, 1 tablespoon (optional)
Procedure
Bake the sweet potatoes. Scrub them with a vegetable brush and cold water, and dry with a paper towel. Slice the sweet potatoes lengthwise. Poke each potato several times with a fork to prevent them from exploding in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes, until very soft. Set aside to cool down. Leave the oven on though, you’ll need it later.
In the meantime, cook the quinoa. Set aside to cool down too.
In a food processor, put the kidney beans, quinoa, sweet potatoes, onions (roughly chopped), pumpkin seeds and the spices.
Once everything is mixed, you can then add the flour / breadcrumbs little by little to thicken the mixture. Shape the mixture into patties about 2 cm thick. You don’t want to make them too thin, they may fall apart; but if you make them too thick, it’ll be more difficult to cook them all the way through.
Heat some olive oil in a pan (about 2 tablespoons) and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Put them in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.
I served them with a layer of guacamole on top, some spicy roast chickpeas and roast vegetables (courgette, bell pepper and mushroom). Flipping delicious!