EASY VEGAN 'CUPBOARD' BURGERS

Hi lovelies! Today, I'm sharing a recipe with you all and I am so excited for this one. For me, being vegan is easy, I love plant based meals, I love beans, lentils, veggies, all the carbs etc etc, however living with a meat eater boyfriend means I do like to be inventive with 'mock meat' meals. I'm very luck in that my boyfriend is super accepting of the vegan lifestyle and unless he goes out of his way to buy himself something else one night, he pretty much eats totally vegan at home which is fab - but that doesn't mean he wants to eat rice and veggies every day and God knows I don't either! So, something that I am trying so hard to perfect is a super yummy veggie burger. There are plenty on the market that you can buy that are really tasty, but I'm not into eating lots of processed vegan products too often, so I like to make my own veggie options that taste super yummy, but are much healthier for you.

So, I call today's recipe 'Cupboard Burgers' as the majority of the ingredients are things that most people (particularly vegans!) are likely to already have in their fridge or cupboards. While they are a bean burger as opposed to a vegetable burger, these are pretty healthy for you. I say pretty healthy as they're not 100% whole foods, as I do use gravy for a meaty flavour. What some of you may not know (I certainly didn't!) is that many 'meat' gravy's are vegan. So, Bisto gravy granules? Vegan! Obviously they're not a superfood, but it's not too bad for you and they add a somewhat meaty flavour to the burgers, making them perfect for non-vegan friends and family! Anyway, onto the recipe!

You will need:
1 Tin of Kidney Beans
1/2 Cup Chopped Mushrooms (any mushrooms will do)
2 Tablespoons Bisto Gravy Granules (or any vegan gravy granules)
Oats
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Salt (I use Pink Himalayan but this is optional)
Pepper
Mixed Herbs

As you can tell from the ingredients, these really are super simple, so there's not much to the preparation and cooking at all, so it's a perfect, quick, easy dinner, without having to throw something processed in the oven! So to start, you'll want to make up a thick gravy with boiling water and the gravy granules, sort of to a ketchup consistency. Then, all you need to do is throw the kidney beans and chopped mushrooms into a blender with a teaspoon (or two depending on your personal tastes!) each of garlic powder, paprika and mixed herbs, a pinch of salt and pepper and pulse until they're mostly combined, but some whole kidney beans and mushroom pieces remain. If you don't have a blender, you can mash the beans with a fork, leaving a few halves or whole beans and just chop the mushrooms finely and stir them in. Once combined, add oats to thicken. This will depend entirely on how much gravy or how thin your gravy was - you'll just want to add enough and stir in until it becomes thick enough that you can form the mixture into patties. This recipe will make 6 smaller patties or 4 large ones.

Once you've formed your patties, you'll want to grill them on a medium/ high heat for around 10 minutes on each side. The exact timing will depend on how powerful your grill is, so just keep an eye on them and flip them when they start to go crispy and slightly darkened on the outside. If you're not going to eat these right away, you can keep the formed patties in the fridge for a day or two then grill the leftovers whenever you want to use them. I haven't tried freezing these but I don't see why you couldn't so it may be worth a go!

You can serve these however you like, but I like to serve them on a toasted bun with homemade fries and a side salad. I love to have these with Sriracha and my boyfriend loves them with Ketchup but of course you can use any sauce you like.

So, that's it! A super simple, seriously cheap vegan burger recipe that even non-vegans will love! Let me know if you try this recipe, or if you have any favourite ways of making vegan burgers, I'd love to know!