Vegan Tiger Nut & Peanut Chilli-Burger

Creating a tasty vegan burger that is also gluten-free and nightshade free is quite a task. This has to be our best effort so far! It all came together at the first attempt and didn’t break up when cooking or turning. It was spicy, with some texture from the peanuts, mushrooms and celery. We will definitely make these again.

The challenge was to make something a bit different, preferably savoury, with the pulp left-over from making the horchata or Tiger Nut Milk with the new Naked Organic Peeled Tiger Nuts from The Tiger Nut Company.

(Don’t be put off if you don’t have access to tiger nuts, you could use other nut pulp or robust glutenfree flour).

Here’s the result:

(All ingredients are organic except the bouillon powder, everything is also vegan, gluten and nightshade-free, except the teaspoon of chilli flakes. I don’t generally eat peppers of any kind, but decided to have a pepper holiday for the purposes of this exercise. You can use any spice you prefer).

Ingredients

1 Cup Cooked Red Kidney Beans, or Tinned and rinsed

3/4 Cup Naked Tiger Nut Pulp (or any nut pulp or glutenfree flour)

1/2 Cup Coarsely Ground Organic Red Peanuts

1 Medium Purple Onion, chopped

1 Large Clove Garlic, pressed

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds*

3 Small Chestnut Mushrooms, chopped

2″ (5 cms) Courgette (Zucchini), washed and chopped (skin left on)

4″ (10 cms) Celery Stick, chopped + some chopped celery leaves

1/2 Small Carrot (skin left on) grated

1 Tsp Vegan Bouillon Powder

1/2 – 1 Tsp Chilli Flakes, depending on how spicy you want them

Splash of Tamari

Pinch of Pink Himalayan Salt and plenty of Ground Black Pepper to taste

Tiger Nut Flour for dusting – we used Chufa de Valencia because that’s what we had. It added a little texture when cooked – but chickpea flour is good too.

Coconut oil for frying

Method

Put everything except the Flour in a food processor and keep pulsing until it comes together enough to make a ball. You don’t want it smooth and mushy, but still with some bite.

Dust a board with some Tiger Nut Flour and some on your hands. Take small handfuls of the mix and shape into burgers. The  mixture should be enough to make 5 burgers, depending on size, we got a bit over-enthusiastic with the first and ended up with a tiny 5th one!

Heat some coconut oil in a frying pan until hot but not smoking.

Cook the burgers, turning over a couple of times with a fish slice to cook through.

We had intended to have savoury rice or quinoa and a green salad with them, but we were so caught up in the creative process and whether they would work or have to scrap it and make something else, we quite forgot and ended up steaming some leftover veggies. Regardless, they were very good. Even boingghealth would like them! (He loves his chilli!)

Ps There are more Tiger Nut Recipes here

*http://www.therawchocolatecompany.com/

Copyright: Chris McGowan