Pumpkin Bean Burgers

I have a massive selection of cookery books but I'm always happy to receive more, they make a great bedtime read, especially if they are full of nice photos to accompany the recipes.

Lorraine Pascale's 'A Lighter Way to Bake' is one of those books, with a photo to accompany each recipe, plus a lot more.

After all the Great British Bake Off baking that I've been doing it's a welcome relief to have some lighter recipes to try out. Don't get me wrong, they are not diet recipes but may include a little less butter and a little less sugar, as well as alternative methods of cooking and serving to cut a few calories.

Some of the recipes that caught my eye are Walnut, Honey & White Chocolate Cakes, Coconut & Lime Loaf, Skinny Cafe Late Butterfly Cakes, Brown Sugar Espresso Chocolate Dipped Meringue Kisses, Peaches & Cream Eclairs with White Chocolate & Raspberries and Cake with Blueberries & White Chocolate Icing, plus a lot, lot more.

Each recipe has nutritional information with it alongside that of a comparable recipe. I chose to make Butternut Squash Bean Burgers with Apple, Mango & Chilli Salsa which are 188 calories per burger vs 494 calories in a comparison recipe. As there are an abundance of pumpkins around cheaply at the moment I used pumpkin instead of butternut squash in my burgers.

Pumpkin Bean Burgers - makes 6

200g prepared Pumpkin, peeled & cut into 1cm pieces

spray oil

2 red onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

small handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

400g tin of kidney beans, drained

400g tin of cannellini beans, drained

1 egg white

finely grated zest of 1 lime

salt & pepper

coating

3 slices of wholemeal bread, lightly toasted

1 egg white

• Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment
• Cook the pumpkin/squash in a pan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes until just tender, drain really well
• Heat a little spray oil in a frying pan over a medium heat & fry the onions until softened & a little browned, for approx 8 minutes
• Prepare the burger coating by whizzing up the lightly toasted bread in a food processor
• Tip the crumbs into a wide shallow bowl and season with salt & pepper
• Lightly beat the egg white in another shallow bowl
• Add the garlic , chilli, paprika and coriander to the onions and cook for a further minute & remove from heat
• Tip the kidney & cannellini beans into a large bowl & lightly crush with a potato masher
• Stir in the onion mixture and the lime zest, egg white & salt & pepper.
• Fold in the pumpkin/squash until mixed through
• Form the mixture into patties with dampened hands
• Dip the burgers into the egg white, coating them fully & then into the breadcrumbs until evenly coated
• Spray each burger with a little oil & place onto the baking tray
• Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until crisp & golden

My burgers weren't quite as neat as Lorraines but they did taste good - I made a mango salsa & served the burger on a crisp lettuce leaf (lighter option for myself) and in ciabatta with oven baked paprika fries for everyone else

     

I received the book for the purpose of this review