Sunday 12 December 2010

Spicy Bean Burgers

So much for posting two or three times a week! The last 2 weeks have seen us pretty much snowed in and I've had somewhat of a CFS relapse so I've been sleeping a lot and living off all the MoFo leftovers in my freezer. I've got so much out of the habit of taking photos, that I completely forgot to take my camera with me when we went out for a festive lunch at Kalpna Vegetarian Indian Restaurant yesterday. I love the Kalpna and have been eating there since the early 80s. It's the best Indian restaurant in Edinburgh and they are great at catering for vegans. At lunchtimes they put on an all-you-can eat buffet lunch and yesterday as they had been pre-warned that there would be a large group of vegans, the buffet was completely vegan. There were a variety of pakora and bateta vada with tamarind sauce and another fruit sauce, salads, brown, white and pilao rice, 3 different curries and breads. Sorry I don't have photos to share with you, but do check out the photos on their website.

At the end of last week I ventured out and found these Dee's Organic Spicy Bean Burgers in Real Foods. They caught my eye when I saw that they are made in West Cork, in Ireland, the land of my forefathers!

I haven't seen these before and as I rarely find vegeburgers that are suitable for vegans, I thought I'd give them a try.  The main ingredients are aduki beans and millet, with onion, garlic, chilli, ginger and spices. I fried mine and it held together well and I really enjoyed the flavour, although it didn't seem very spicy to me. The ginger gave it something of a smoky flavour. I served mine with sauteed potatoes and steamed green veggies. I'd definitely buy these again and I 'll try grilling them next time. They have inspired me to break out the millet, so I plan to cook something with that later in the week.