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Bean burgers
By Ann | May 16, 2008
I love burgers–turkey, beef, chicken, or fish–I love the compact portability of a burger, I even love the word burger. I don’t, however, always love the saturated fat of a beef burger. Fish burgers are wonderful, but I can’t always get to Whole Foods to buy fresh fish, and while bocaburgers are a worthy vegetarian substitute, they are pretty salty.
Enter Mark Bittman’s simplest bean burgers, from the “tofu, vegetable burgers, and other high-protein foods” chapter of his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I made these earlier this week, when I didn’t have a lot of time to cook dinner. Truly, they are very easy–simply whiz together 1 can of beans (your choice–I used kidney), an onion, some rolled oats, chili powder, and an egg in your food processor until blended. The mixture was quite loose and gloopy, which surprised me. However, I managed to shape it into five patties, with the help of slightly wet hands (which prevented sticking). I was afraid they would disintegrate before cooking, but they held together beautifully as I fried them until golden (five minutes per side) in a nonstick skillet.
Topped with avocado, tomato and some Cabot 75% fat free cheddar (have you all tried this stuff? it’s great!), the burgers were savory and surprisingly moist, with good flavor from the onion and chili powder, not too dense, yet still satisfying. Chris went bean crazy and had an accompanying side of baked beans. Best of all, we had two burgers left over for lunch the next day.
One of the things I love about this new cookbook is that this vegetarian burger recipe is only one of seven–and that’s not including the variations! Other versions look intriguing–fast nut burgers, for example, or fresh spring vegetable burger. I can’t wait to try them all! (But maybe not the tofu burger, Asian style, which calls for arame (what’s that?) or other dark sea green, like kombu or wakame, which sound kind of fishy and unappealing).
Finally, if you are wondering why this post has a picture of beans, and not a bean burger, it is because I accidentally ate my subject before I could photograph it. Sorry — I am out of blogging practice!
P.S. If you would like the recipe for these bean burgers, please e-mail me!
Topics: Cooking the Books | 2 Comments »
May 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
This sounds wonderful, and it certainly makes me feel like buying the book.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Wow! You’re making me hungry! This sounds like just what I need,(The burger and the book). I have been dying to go vegetarian or in the direction of vegetarian this summer because of the health and enviromental benefits. Yummy solutions like this is just what I need.