Arribaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Need I say more…
I have always wanted to go to Mexico! Remember the Sex and the City movie? When Carrie and the girls go to Mexico on Carrie’s honeymoon after she and Mr Big have that pre wedding spat. I was watching it the other day. All I could think of was how amazing would it be to be in Mexico with my girlfriends – the beach, a Corona, sunshine, a big bright sombrero, lots of tacos. Oh please teleport me to Mexico. Alas, going to Mexico could be a while, but that can’t stop me from bringing Mexico to me! How? Simple, through those big bold beautiful Mexican flavours – beans, salsa, jalapeno, guacamole, corn chips and more.
Recently for our Friday night in (Yes! My husband and I are too cool to go out for after work drinks on Friday lol), I decided it was time we took a culinary trip to Mexico. I had just watched the Sex and the City movie the night before and was clearly obsessing about Mexico all over again. I decided to change things up a bit and rather than the usual tacos or enchiladas I tried something different.
I tried to uplift the down trodden veggie burger by giving it a Mexican twist. You will know why I am calling it a down trodden Veggie Burger if you have eaten one here in Australia – it’s either too dry, or too soggy, under seasoned, over cooked, all in all just pathetic. To top it all there’s no McVeggie burger in McDonald’s either, which is the pride and glory of vegetarian burger lovers in India. So for all my Australian and other veggie burger lovers until McDonald’s doesn’t introduce the McVeggie here or wherever you are, please find a winner in this Mexican veggie burger.
Ingredients: 22 Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
For the burger
- Four large potatoes, boiled and mashed
- 250 gms of red kidney beans, boiled and coarsely mashed
- Half cup of breadcrumbs
- One red onion, finally chopped
- Half bunch of coriander, finally chopped
- 1.5 teaspoon of cumin powder
- 1.5 teaspoon of smoked paprika
- One teaspoon of coriander powder
- Salt to season
- Oil for pan frying
- Burger buns (I used English muffins)
For the salsa
- One red onion, finely sliced
- Two tomatoes, finely sliced
- Juice of half a lemon
- Half a bunch of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
- Half teaspoon of cumin powder
For the mayo
- Four tablespoons of mayonnaise
- One tablespoon of Jalapeno sauce
- One tablespoon of Habanero sauce (or less if you don’t like it hot)
- Juice of half a lemon
Burger toppings
- Cheddar cheese slices
- Fresh lettuce
- Fried egg (optional)
To make the burger patties, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mash them up. Divide and shape the mixture into four equal sized patties, roughly 2 cm thick. Place them in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm up while you prepare the other elements of the burger.
To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. You can add more or less of the ingredients as desired, I personally prefer a zingy, spicy sauce and it goes really well with the patty. My vegan readers you can replace the mayonnaise based sauce by combining smashed avocado with the Habanero and Jalapeno sauce.
To make the salsa, simply combine all the ingredients. Taste to make sure the flavours are to your liking.
Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees celsius. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the burger patties, cook for five to six minutes on each side or until crispy. Transfer them to the oven while you prepare the remaining elements of the burger.
Halve, butter and toast the burger buns on a hot griddle pan or under the grill. Once ready, add a dollop of Mexican mayo or avocado relish and spread of both buns evenly. Remove and place the patty from the oven on the base of the bun, top it up with more mayo, salsa, fresh lettuce, fried egg (optional), cheese slice and finally the burger top. Your lip smackingly delicious Mexican Veggie Burger is ready to be devoured.
I served the burger with a side of corn chips, avocado relish and char grilled corn – I was definitely teleported to Mexico!!!
