We have now hit the middle of winter so I tried to think of a recipe that would make full use of all the green wintery vegetables in season at the moment. Soup is a great way to use lots of in season vegetables but another way to do this is via mashing them all up to make a burger! This is where my food crush Yottam Ottolenghi comes into the picture. He has this amazing ability to mix vegetables and spices together to make brilliantly tasting food. In his cookbook ‘Plenty‘, I found this amazing broad bean burger recipe and couldn’t go past it.
This burger is seriously healthy as the spices give it all the flavour it needs. Paired with a wholemeal bun and some lettuce/tomatoes, you will be eating a pretty damn tasty and healthy meal!
Go for your life and use use any ingredients you like. At the moment broccoli, spinach, kale, mushrooms peas, potatoes and pumpkins are in season so these will be the cheapest and tastiest options!
Broad bean, pea and spinach burgers
(Preparation time: 25 minutes, cooling time: 30 minutes, cooking time: 5 minutes)
Ingredients
¾ tsp each of cumin, coriander and fennel
225g spinach
3 tbsp olive oil
250g broad beans (easiest to use frozen broad beans)
250g frozen peas
½ tsp fresh green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp ground turmeric
3 tbsp chopped coriander
40g dried breadcrumbs
1 free-range egg
120g sunflower oil
4 lemon wedges
Salt & pepper for seasoning
Method
Put the whole seeds in a pan and dry-roast on a high flame for 3-4 minutes, or until they start releasing their aromas. Grind to a powder in a mortar and pestle and leave aside.
Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 15 minutes or until tender.
In the meantime, wilt the spinach in a hot pan with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out any liquid, then chop roughly and put aside.
Blanch the broad beans and peas in boiling water for about one minute. Drain, and refresh under cold water. Once cool enough to handle, remove the skins of the broad beans and discard (I know that this is tedious but they will taste a whole lot better without their skins on!).
Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and tip into a large mixing bowl. Immediately add the skinned broad beans, peas, crushed seeds, chilli, garlic, turmeric, remaining 2 tbsps of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Use a potato masher to mash it all up roughly; don’t worry if some beans are not totally crushed. Next, add the wilted spinach, chopped coriander and breadcrumbs. Taste to check the seasoning. Lastly, mix in the egg.
Wet your hands and shape the mix into fat patties that are roughly 5cm in diameter and 2cm thick. Ideally let them rest in the freezer for half an hour.
To cook, heat up the sunflower oil and fry the burgers on high heat for 5 minutes, until each side is golden brown and the patty is cooked through. Serve on a lovely bun with lettuce, tomatoes and yoghurt sauce (details below).
Accompanying yoghurt sauce
Mix 50g of Greek yoghurt, 50g sour cream, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp chopped coriander, salt and black pepper.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
These ‘vegeburgers’ make the meat version taste uninteresting.
Delicious!
Tink…this is a mighty burger….