White Bean Burgers

This recipe was an experiment, one of those where you throw things in a bowl and hope that it all comes out. Fortunately, I think this recipe for bean burgers was fantastic!

According to my weekly meal plan, we were scheduled to have hamburgers on Wednesday night. When it came time to cook dinner, though, the idea of eating beef did not appeal to me at all. I decided to go ahead and make the burgers for Scott and find something else for myself. Unfortunately, I could not find any thing that could be prepared as quickly as the burgers and I wanted to eat dinner at the same time as Scott.

Finally, I dug around to the back of my cabinet and found a can of butter beans that I had planned to marinate and use in salads. I decided to try my hand at a bean burger. How hard could it be? I thought it should be pretty simple, as long as I stuck to the formula for regular burgers or meatloaf: protein, seasonings, and a binder. This is what I came up with:

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 T. olive oil
3 T. panko breadcrumbs
seasoning salt
pepper
hot sauce
Worcestershire

I mashed the beans slightly with a potato masher, then threw in the rest of the ingredients and stirred it all together. Finally, I formed the mixture into two patties and cooked them in a skillet with cooking spray for approximately 3 minutes on each side, until browned. Then I topped them with cheddar cheese slices and placed them in the oven (which was on to bake fries) just long enough for the cheese to melt.

I think this was a nice combination of flavors – the oil kept the mixture moist, and the Worcestershire lended a slight meaty flavor. I tasted the mixture before forming the patties and ended up adding more hot sauce for a total of approximately 1 teaspoon for the whole mixture.

I am also proud to say that I convinced Scott, a.k.a. Hater of Beans, to try burger. His official review? “Not for me.” At least he tried!

If you are looking for an alternative to regular beef or turkey burgers, I suggest you give this recipe a try!

CEiMB: Stuffed Turkey Burgers

This week’s CEiMB recipe was Stuffed Turkey Burgers, hosted by Peggy of Pantry Revisited.

At first I planned on making the burgers substituting beef for the turkey, but I changed my mind during a last minute trip to the grocery store for supplies. My husband and I ate a lot of turkey burgers last year, almost once a week for the majority of the summer months, and I just got so tired of them! I thought I never wanted to eat another turkey burger again but decided to give them another shot.

The recipe was very simple, only using ground turkey, roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper. I got a little creative, though, and added a few crushed red pepper flakes and some Worcestershire to the meat for extra flavor. I also mixed the salt and pepper into the meat rather than sprinkling the outside of the patties to ensure the meat was flavored throughout.

While I was mixing the red peppers and mozzarella cheese to stuff the burgers, all I could think was pimento cheese. I guess it was pimento cheese in its most basic form, but the smell of it was fantastic and got me a little more excited about the recipe.

(topped with Dijon mustard, romaine, tomato and onion and
surrounded by one of my Light Brioche Sandwich Buns)

I noticed in some of the comments for the recipe that other people noted these burgers are very messy, but I didn’t think so at all. I had no problems with the filling leaking out while I was grilling the burgers or running out when I cut mine in half.

Here are my tips for a mess-free stuffed burger:

- Rather than forming two thin patties of equal size, I made the bottom patty a little larger than I wanted the final burger to be and added the stuffing. Then I made the top patty just large enough to cover the stuffing and overlapped the bottom patty and sealed it instead of just pinching the edges together.

- I also let the burgers rest for a few moments after grilling, not only to redistribute the juices in the meat but to allow the cheese stuffing to set up a little. That prevented the stuffing from running out.

My husband and I both enjoyed these burgers. His official review: “You could make these again…,” and let me tell you that’s the same as two thumbs up. I, however, enjoyed the stuffing more than the actual burger and will probably go back to my original idea of using beef instead of turkey. Either way, I know Scott will enjoy them because he has never met a burger he wouldn’t eat!

Thanks to Peggy for choosing another great Ellie recipe!