QUINOA & BEAN BURGERS

I came up with these delicious burgers over the weekend when I didn't want some left over quinoa and cannellini beans get waisted. I followed a recipe I found online very vaguely and was so pleased with the outcome that I wanted to share it with you. 

You need:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• approx. 1 cup cannellini beans (I used dried) 
• 1/2 cup of brown rice flour
• 1 carrot
• approx. 1/2 stalk of leek (white part)
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 handfuls of spinach (I used frozen)
• handful of fresh coriander
• handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
• approx. 2 tbs of liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 2 tsp of garam masala powder
• pinch of ground cumin
• pinch of paprika
• pinch of black pepper
• pinch of ground coriander 
• pinch of dried chili flakes
• pinch of turmeric

Boil the beans until they become soft (if you are using dried ones you can either soak them over night or boil them for 20 minutes, let them soak for an hour and then boil them again). Boil the quinoa in 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water until it's cooked. Combine the beans, quinoa, brown rice flour and garam masala in a large bowl.

Wash, peel and dice the carrot, leek, tomatoes, garlic, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. Mix them in a blender with defrosted spinach, a splash of water and the liquid aminos or soy sauce. Blend until the vegetables get fine and a paste kind of texture. Don't blend too much so they turn into a sauce.

Mix the vegetable paste with beans and quinoa and add all the spices. I put roughly 1/2 - 1 tsp of each to add flavour. Make little patties and fry them in medium heat until they get golden brown. I fried mine in coconut oil and for quite a long time, about 7-8 minutes each side. You could also bake them in an oven or grill them.

I garnished the burgers with avocado and some arugula and tomato salad - yummy and for the kids I made little burgers with cheese, buns and the whole thing.            

Heidi x