Lemon & sage white bean burgers

February 26, 2013

This blog has been pretty heavy on the restaurant posts lately, reflecting our lack of home cooking enthusiasm over the last few months (in part thanks to trips away to Sydney and Hobart). With a couple quiet weeks in a row we've been trying to get back into the swing of things, and this simple burger recipe from the tropical vegan was a pretty good to recapture my cooking mojo.

There's not a lot to it - especially if you take the lazy option of using canned beans like we did - but the results are excellent. The patties hold their shape well and are hearty and filling with nice subtle flavours from the lemon and sage. We didn't have the energy for the roasted eggplant sauce that Theresa whipped up, so Cindy recreated the dipping sauce from the previous night's rice paper rolls, which was a fine substitute. We ended up getting three meals out of these patties and I really enjoyed them every time - something to add to our regular burger rotation.

Lemon & sage white bean burgers

(based on this recipe from the tropical vegan)

2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of 2 small lemons

1 teaspoon dried, ground sage

1/2 cup polenta

1/2 cup gluten flour

salt and pepper

Combine the beans, olive oil, lemon juice and sage in a big bowl and leave them to soak together for as long as you can be bothered (I only read the recipe once I was hungry, so they only marinated for 10 minutes or so).

Mash the beans up as best you can -  you want to have a fairly smooth mush without too many distinct beany bits remaining.

Stir in the polenta and generous sprinkles of salt and pepper. Add in the gluten flour and knead the dough for a few minutes - it should be a pretty solid dough by the time you're done.

Form the mixture into patties (we ended up with 6 good-sized burger patties from the quantities above) and then fry over medium heat for 5 minutes or so on each side. 

Serve in rolls, with salad and the condiment of your choosing.