This burger’s a little different. This time no burger of the ‘the-more-meat-the-merrier’ kind, but rather the opposite: a veggie burger. Why? We have a number of vegetarian friends, and when they visit, we want to be able to offer them something that’s not just a meat dish minus the meat. And everybody loves burgers. So I made some vegetarian burgers for the occasion. And although everyone knows me as a seasoned carnivore, I ate and approved of these burgers myself.

Ingredients:

The Burger:

• 2 cans of kidney beans
• 1 can/bowl of chickpeas
• Jalepeños (minced)
• Cilantro (minced)
• Some salsa
• 2 eggs
• Breadcrumbs
• Tabasco
• Salt and Pepper

Garnish:

• Rucolla
• 1 red onion (minced)
• Avocado (sliced)
• Some more salsa
• Lime Yoghurt

Lime yoghurt:

• 200g yoghurt
• The juice of half a lime
• Cilantro (minced)
• Black pepper

So, a veggie burger. Where to begin? Well, because we’ll be using some of last week’s salsa for this burger, you might start there. When that’s done, put it in the fridge so we can start making some burgers.

Take the beans and the chickpeas, put them together in a bowl, and mash them together using a masher. That way you preserve some of the look and feel of the beans and chickpeas, which is great for veggie burgers. Add the eggs, the breadcrumbs, the cilantro, a couple of spoons of salsa, and the jalepeños to the mix, and stir in some salt, pepper, and tabasco. Make about 3 or 4 equally proportioned burgers out of the mixture, and put them in the fridge for an hour or two if you can.

While those burgers cool down in the fridge, you can start making your lime yoghurt. That’s actually quite easy to do. Take about 200gr of yoghurt (or 400, if you want to serve some yoghurt next to your burger as well, or keep some dressing for later), and stir in some cilantro, lime juice, and black pepper. And that’s it. Try it out, put some more cilantro or lime juice in if you think it needs it, and you’re ready.

Afterwards, we can start preparing the vegetables that you’ll use to garnish the burgers. Wash the rucolla, mince the onions, and slice the avocado. Save the avocado’s stone, and put it in the same bowl as the avodaco’s fruit, to keep it from going brown. Put everything in the fridge, to wait alongside the burgers.

When the burgers are ready, you can start baking them. Mind you: veggy burgers don’t flip over so easily. Because they don’t have any meat, they may crumble when you’re flipping them. That’s why you use 2 eggs in the burgers instead of just 1: to make them a little more firm. But even using 2 eggs, you’d better be a little careful. Try flipping them over as little as possible, and make sure the drop isn’t too high.

When the burgers are done, prepare the buns. Put some rucola, minced oninons, and avocado on the bottom, and (carefully!) put the burger on top. Add a little lime yoghurt and a little salsa, and you’re done! Enjoy!