Christmas Appeal: Baked Bean Burger recipe

If you're coming over to my house for dinner anytime soon, prepare yourself, for I have found the most eclectic fusion of vegetarian and classic Kiwi cuisine: The Baked Bean Burger.

As part of the Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal, in partnership with Gilmours Wholesale Food and Beverage Tauriko, I wanted to try out one of the recipes popped into food parcels by the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

It was an unexpected mix but I like baked beans and I like burgers so I thought, what could go wrong with a mixture of the two?
Xmas
So off I went to grab the ingredients I did not have in stock already - the can of beans, onion, capsicum, potatoes and bread rolls set me back about $7.

A burger fit for a hungry journalist. Photo / Andrew Warner

At less than $2 a serving, I'm left wondering where this recipe was in my student life.

It was easy-as-pie to make. A chop here and a mash there, and the mixture was made.

It was a wee bit of a challenge to keep the patties together but with some tactical mushing into shape and careful flipping in the frypan, the patties turned out a treat.

The creaminess of the potato mixed with the punch of the chilli and the crispiness of the breadcrumbs made this recipe a winner.

The bounty of ingredients. Photo / Jean Bell

Baked Bean Burgers

Ingredients

- One tin of baked beans

- Oil for frying

- One medium onion (red or white)

- One red pepper (if you have it)

- One garlic clove

- Three potatoes

- Four slices of bread or 125g of breadcrumbs

- One teaspoon of dry chilli flakes (if you have it and you like it a bit spicy)

- One teaspoon of cayenne pepper

- Salt and pepper

- One teaspoon of tabasco sauce

- Three tablespoons of parsley, fresh or dry (if you have it)

Method
1. Chop onion, red capsicum and garlic. Fry them together for around five minutes.
2. Add the chilli, tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper and heat together for a minute. Set aside to cool.
3. Peel and cook the potatoes for around 10 minutes. Mash and set aside to cool.
4. Once cooled, mix the mashed potato and onion mixture together.
5. Drain beans from their tomato sauce and set sauce aside in a separate container.
6. Add beans to onion and potato mixture, mix in parsley and black pepper then mash together.
7. Divide into about eight portions.
8. Prepare some breadcrumbs using a food processor. If you don't have a food processor, use a cheese grater to make rough bread crumbs.
9. Coat each patty with breadcrumbs and form into patties.
10. Fry patties in a shallow frying pan with some oil for about three minutes on each side until crisp.
11. Serve on buns with the tomato sauce and enjoy.