Mexican bean burgers

Mexican bean burgers

This summer may be proving a bit of a washout, but you can still manage the odd barbecue between the inevitable cloud bursts! After last week’s post about vegetarian barbecues, I thought I’d share this recipe for tasty Mexican bean burgers.

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time:10 mins

Serves: 3

…

Ingredients:

• 2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 100g breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• small bunch coriander, stalks and leaves chopped
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp fresh salsa
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Tip the beans into a large bowl, then crush roughly with a fork.
2. Add the breadcrumbs, chilli powder, coriander, egg and salsa.
3. Season to taste, then mix together with a fork.
4. Divide the mixture into six and shape into burgers.
5. Now they’re ready to stick on the barbecue. They should take about 5 minutes on each side until golden and crisp.

I like to serve these in fresh granary rolls with corn on the cob and a couple of vegetable kebabs. Just spear slices of courgette, pepper, mushroom and halloumi, sprinkle with paprika, drizzle with olive oil and grill on the barbecue for five minutes. Yum!

Photo: Cowomally

Vegetarian barbecues

Barbecue

After a very long slog, I finally finished my exams last week, which I thought called for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than with a nice, sunny barbecue? Although I admit, the sunny part was slightly ambitious for Wales…

I love eating outside and was feeling the need to get my fix of Vitamin D after too many days spent shut away in my study with my head buried in a textbook! So armed with bean burgers, halloumi and plenty of cider, I set out to meet my friends.

Bean burgers

But unfortunately, it seems that barbecues are just another of those times when it’s not socially acceptable to be a vegetarian. As far as I can work out, there are three such occasions: 1. Christmas dinner, 2. Full English breakfasts, 3. Barbecues.

Your normally understanding friends are likely to do one of the following:

a) Look bemused and ask: “But what DO vegetarians eat at barbecues?”

b) Argue that beef burgers are far superior to bean burgers and swear that the smell of sausages will convert you.

c) Try to make a joke out of the whole thing by saying something like: “Well, for every cow you don’t eat, I’m going to eat two..!” (Yes, I really have heard that one.)

Vegetable kebabs

All in all, barbecues are a trying time for vegetarians. Even if you manage to persuade your friends that actually, vegetable kebabs are very tasty and that the smell of burgers probably won’t stop you being veggie after 10 years, you still have to deal with the barbecue itself.

There are a number of pitfalls here. If you’re the only veggie present and your host has provided you with a separate barbecue, you instantly feel like you’ve caused trouble and then you look like a loner with their own “special” food.

Worse still, you have to cook your food alongside all the meat and however hard your friends try to keep their burgers away, someone will inevitably say: “Sorry, I think I just got meat juice on your veggie sausages.” This is far from ideal.

But despite all this, I still love barbeques. As soon as the sun comes out, I just want to head to the beach, crack open a nice cool beer and enjoy the long summer evenings.

Photo: Spiros K