Preparation

• Drain and rinse the beans. Dry them with a paper towel and leave them to dry.

Boil the rice

• Add 100 gr of brown rice to 250 ml water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, leave to simmer until all water has evaporated (+/- 10 - 15 minutes).
• Leave the rice to sit in the saucepan, uncovered.
• The rice should stay warm to retain its stickiness.

Preparing the linseeds

• Pound 1 tablespoon of linseeds in a blender or coffee grinder. You will need to reduce the seeds to a powder. In a small bowl, mix the linseed powder to 3 tablespoons of water. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 200°C. You can obviously also fry your burgers in a frying pan… your choice.

Cooking the Shiitake mushrooms

• Finely chop the onion and garlic cloves.
• Drizzle your olive oil into the pan, medium heat.
• Add onion (only the onion at this point) and sauté for a few minutes, until they become tender.
• Cut your Shiitake into small chunks.
• Add garlic and mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes, until they are tender and golden. Adjust the heat as needed.
• Finally, add the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and mirin. Stir and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so. Adjust the heat as needed, there should be no liquid left in the pan.
• Remove the pan from the cooker and leave to cool down.

Final step

• In a food processor, add the beans, powdered linseeds, mushrooms, rice, spices (salt, pepper, smoked paprika) and the panko.
• Mix everything thoroughly so that you end up with a consistent mixture, with some solid chunks (gives it more “bite”).
• Divide into 4 parts and make patties.

Cooking

• Put your patties on a baking paper-covered cooking tray.
• Cook in the oven for 8 minutes, flip them over and continue cooking for an extra 7 minutes
• You can add a bit of oil with a brush if you think your burgers are starting to look a bit too dry.
• About 2 minutes before removing the burgers from the oven, place the buns on the baking paper.
• Note: you can obviously also cook the burgers in a frying pan on low/medium heat.

Garnishing

• Garnish your burger according to your own taste with sauce, avocado slices, tomato slices, lettuce, slices of vegan cheese….