There’s a bit of an art to creating a delicious veggie burger. For me, it needs to have a delicious dance of flavours, an exciting dense texture, moist on the inside with a little, thin layer of crunch on the outside. Below I have posted a recipe for a delicious Spicy Vegan Bean Burger, but in the meantime, let’s look at the art of making good veggie burgers.
Getting your bean burgers to hold together
Holding together nicely is a bit of a must – and I am sure we all love a veggie burger that holds together really well! Cooked beans usually provide an excellent base, and when mashed (or blended) they have the tendency to help hold everything together.
Adding a bit of spice to your bean burgers
In the recipe below, I am sharing a tasty, high-protein bean burger. From a health perspective, the spices really help to get the circulation flowing, warming us up when the days are starting to get chilly (yey!). You can easily adjust the spices to your preferred levels. I am not particularly accustomed to chili and the smallest amount will have me on fire, so I tend to err on the side of ‘less is more’.
A delightful dance of spicy vegan bean burger flavour
I also want to taste the whole medley of veggie burger flavours, rather than one dominating spice (another good reason not to overdo it on the chili). These Spicy Bean Burgers benefit from a little rice flour to encourage the binding process. The tomato puree also helps to bring everything together whilst inviting in an exciting tanginess. Grated apple adds a subtle, yet surprisingly welcome balance of sweetness.
Beans and whatnot for your spicy vegan bean burger
You can use canned chickpeas and beans, although you might like to cook up your own from scratch. I tend to do a massive pan full, make a big batch of veggie burgers (they should freeze well), and then pop any leftover beans/chickpeas in the fridge (if I am going to use them within a few days) or freeze (if it might take me a while to use them).
Here goes…
Spicy Bean Burgers - easy and delicious
A delicious spicy bean burger, using kidney beans, chickpeas and an assortment of warming spices. Naturally gluten-free, wheat-free and vegan.
Ingredients
- 3 large garlic cloves
- 300g chickpeas (cooked)
- 250g kidney beans (cooked)
- ½ medium sized apple
- 6 tablespoons tomato puree
- Small handful fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 4 tablespoons brown rice flour
Instructions
- Crush the garlic cloves.
- Grate the apple.
- Put the cooked (drained) chickpeas, kidney beans, grated apple, and tomato puree into a large mixing bowl and mash everything together with a strong potato masher. Mashing will seriously help the binding process, although it’s great to have a few textured chunks of half-mashed chickpeas and beans in there too. So go for ‘mostly’ mashed with a few rustic chunks.
- Finely chop the parsley (bear in mind that if the leaves are too big, they will hinder the binding process, so chop them as small as you can).
- Add all of the spices, parsley, and rice flour to the bowl and mix in, pressing down with the back of a metal spoon to make sure everything is evenly combined.
- Form into patty shapes, firmly pressing together and place on a grill tray (US: broiler).
- Grill on medium heat for about 8 minutes on each side (or until tanned). Grilling time will depend on whether you have a gas or electric grill. The grilling process will help them hold together, although they will still be a little delicate until you turn them over - so take care during the turning process.
- This recipe works well with a spicy tomato sauce, ketchup, or tahini sauce. For sauce ideas, you could check out my gently spiced ginger sauce here: Easy Fresh Ginger Sauce For Veggie Burgers
- Enjoy!
I do hope that you create some delicious Spicy Bean Burgers. Remember to let me know how you get on in the comments below…
with love
Anastasia x
Pin spicy vegan bean burger for later…
I love the idea of Apple in there; I tend to use courgette or pepper grated over the mixing bowl to catch the juice. We all love bean burgers so will try yours for sure! Lately I’ve been basing my veggie burgers on soaked brown rice flakes, ground nuts and seeds which give a really good “skin” but you have to make them quite chunky to keep the inside moist. Thanks for this recipe ?
Thank you for the lovely post Sarojini. Your variation sounds really delicious. I LOVE using ground seeds for my veggie burgers too, they work wonders! I’ve traditionally used seeds for most things… I am really enjoying the use of more beans at the moment ‘though – works brilliantly for my husband and son, who tend to appreciate the extra high protein content.
I’m veggie and find it hard to buy great patties. May just skip it and make my own using this recipe 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Well, I do hope that you get to enjoy these. I often make a big batch of this sort of thing and freeze a few for later. Thanks for your comment. x
These look so delicious, Trinity. And I love that you’ve gone through your creation process here — so interesting. I was surprised to see the apple in there, but can only imagine how good that must be. I’m a huge spice girl by the way, but I also love to be able to taste all the flavors in the food I’m eating so I agree on the less is more part on these. Adding these to my loooong list of your recipes to try 🙂
Thank you for the kind words Audrey. It does make writing up my recipe so much more rewarding to talk more about the process a little. I always feel that it might inspire and encourage people to be more creative in their own kitchen too. I love hearing about the different medleys that everyone comes up with 🙂
I know you love cardamom – I really had to hold myself back from putting it in this one… I have so many cardamom recipes that I should write a cardamom recipe book ha ha!
I absolutely love veggie burgers! Especially ones like this that are filled with spices. Chickpeas and kidney beans are my favourite two pulses. These look so delicious Trinity, and I love how healthy they are too 🙂 x
Oh my goodness, these look so good, Trinity!
Spicy bean is my favourite kind of veggie burger 🙂 These look wonderful, as always!
we made these last night, turned out great. Delicious. Thanks for sharing.
simon
Wonderful – I am pleased to hear it.
Made these for my teen tonight and cooked on the BBQ. Used a combination of pinto, kidney, canellini and black eyed beans, Mexican spices and dipped in egg, flour, egg again and semolina and chilling for 30 mins before BBQ. Very popular. Crispy outside and moist inside – must be the apple, inspired. Got some to freeze too for quick meals. Thankyou
Delighted to hear that they worked well for you Nicki and inspired your own version.
x
Just made a batch!! Looking forward to the taste!
Just made them they are delicious!! I had no chic peas so used large white beans instead and also had no rice flour so used chic pea flour! Turned out well I think ,, thankyou xx