My daughter Tabby recently cooked these bean burgers for me and served them with a big, crunchy, fresh salad. I loved this meal—so here is her recipe:

INGREDIENTS FOR BEAN BURGERS

Makes 6 small(ish) bean burgers

• 1 heaped teaspoon of coconut butter (approx 10g)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds (or level teaspoon of cumin powder)
• 1 clove of garlic very finely chopped or crushed
• 1 large or 2 small red onions finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot grated
• ½ small red chilli, deseeded and chopped or ½ teaspoon of chilli powder
• 250g cooked kidney beans or 1 tin of kidney beans drained
• 1 heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
• 1 heaped dessertspoon of sun-dried tomato paste (I use Zest or Gia)
• 75g porridge oats
• Grinding of black pepper corns and tiny pinch of rock or sea salt
• Optionally, juice of ½ a lemon

Note: Check your mustard, tinned kidney beans and tomato paste are sugar free – in particular most whole-grain mustards have sugar or honey added. Good brands for mustard are; Tracklements French Wholegrain or Delouis Fils Wholegrain Cyder Vinegar Mustard. Most ‘regular’ tins of kidney bean will contain preservatives, but ‘organic’ versions won’t and these are less likely to have added sugar too.
I prefer to cook my kidney beans from dried as I feel they are nutritiously better than tinned beans, which have been pressure-cooked. Home-cooked beans have more texture too. 115g of dried beans will give you approximately 250g of cooked beans. I soak them overnight, then boil for 1 hour whilst making and eating breakfast. Then my beans are ready for when I want to make dishes like this. Better still, cook a larger batch, then bag them in 250g and freeze them.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C for fan-assisted) or gas mark6. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
In a large frying pan melt the coconut oil. When hot, add the cumin seeds and roast for 30 seconds to bring out the flavour. Add to the pan the garlic and red onions. Turn down the heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly until the onion has become semi-translucent. Add the grated carrot and chopped chilli to the pan. Stir well and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the cooked kidney beans into a large bowl (much bigger than in the photo above). Using a potato-masher, mash the beans until you have a coarse mash. Add to this the mustard, tomato paste, the porridge oats, black pepper, pinch of salt and, if using, the lemon juice. Now add the softened onion mixture from the frying pan to the bowl. Using a wooden spoon, mix well so the ingredients so you have a soft-dough-like mixture.
To make Tabby’s bean burgers look nice and neat, take a large cookie cutter and place it on your lined baking tray. Spoon the bean mixture into cookie cutter, until the cutter is full. Smooth the mixture with the back of a spoon, then lift up to make the next one. Alternatively, they will taste just as good if you take balls of the mixture that have been flattened using your hands and/or a spoon.
When you have made all of the burgers, place the baking tray into your pre-heated oven and cook for 18-20 minutes.
Serve with a mixed salad. I particularly like these with a salad containing nuts and apple.
Eat Well—Be Well 🙂