I do eat meat but I often choose a vegetarian alternative, especially when it comes to mince dishes. I’m not keen on cooking with mince myself, something about the look of it makes me shudder and aside from proper American style burgers in a restaurant I probably could live without it entirely.

At the weekend we went to the Lollibop Festival where we enjoyed some really delicious veggie versions of meat balls made with chick peas and it inspired me to come up with something similar. I thought that as I’d made the recipe to create the balls, I may as well turn some of it into burgers and see if I could make them into a really good veggie alternative to one of my favourite things to eat ever! They both turned out really well and were extremely tasty! I used kidney beans rather than chick peas and made them really spicy!

Veggie spicy bean balls with spaghetti and marinara sauce and veggie spicy bean burgers with Mexican accompaniments!

Ingredients for the bean mince:

2 x 400g cans of kidney beans in water (drained)

A handful of chestnut mushrooms (sliced)

One clove of garlic (finely chopped)

A teaspoon of cayenne pepper

A teaspoon of chilli powder

A teaspoon of chilli flakes

A handful of grated cheddar cheese

1 egg

100g of fine bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

A little olive oil

Corn flour

Method:

Fry the onions and garlic in a tiny amount of the oil and add to a big bowl with the kidney beans, cheese, cayenne pepper, chilli powder and chilli flakes. Blend with a hand blender and when mushed add the egg and bread crumbs before pulsing again. Add as much salt and pepper as you think you will like (I just add a couple of grinds of each).

When fully incorporated the mixture will be very thick and heavy, a bit sticky but you will be able to shape it into whatever you are making, bean balls or bean burgers. When you have your shape roll or pat it into some corn flour to coat and place in the fridge for an hour or so to harden up.

Cook on a baking tray in the over for 20 minutes at 200 and then finish off in the frying pan over another tiny amount of oil. Do a minute or so on each side.

I then added the balls to spaghetti with marinara sauce and sprinkled over some hard Italian cheese. I built my Mexican burger as follows:

Slice a crusty roll in half and spread guacamole on the inside of the lid. Spread salsa on the base followed by a dollop of sour cream, a layer of sliced avacado, a slice or two of beef tomato, some sliced mozzarella cheese and a lettuce leaf before placing the bean burger on top and finishing with the lid.

The spicy bean burger with a Mexican feel!

I have not been paid to write this post.