Culinary Chronicles: Mexicali Sliders

The weather in Memphis has been beautiful this week, and even with a few April showers rolling in, the dreary days of winter seem to be far behind us. One of my favorite things about warm weather is using the grill and my favorite thing to grill is burgers. Hamburgers are so much fun to make, but they aren’t the healthiest or most environmentally friendly thing you can make.  One hamburger patty is roughly 425 calories, and that is before I stuff the burger with cheese, peppers, and Worcestershire sauce and place it on a nicely toasted bun, and it takes around 660 gallons of water to produce one hamburger patty. A healthy, tasty, and 100% vegan solution is to make a black bean burger. One black bean patty is about 200 calories and takes only 230 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beans, more than enough to make one patty.

Despite the severe weather watch for Friday, the good weather should return on Saturday- why not enjoy the sunshine with some Mexicali Sliders? This recipe comes from my favorite vegan chef, Chef Chloe, who not only has a rocking black bean patty recipe, but pairs it with a great guacamole and spicy mango sauce. So open up your grill, and kick of the season with healthy and delicious Mexicali sliders!

Ingredients

Sliders
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, small dice
1 14-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small carrot, finely diced or shredded (about ½ cup)
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup breadcrumbs

Spicy Mango Sauce
1 mango, peeled and cut
½ cup sun dried tomatoes, whole or sliced
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, but any kind will do)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
 
Guacamole
(you can just but guacamole from the store if you don’t want to make it yourself)

3 ripe Haas avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled
½ lime, juiced
¼ cup salsa fresca
sea salt and black pepper

Preparation

Sliders
In a large skillet, sauté onions in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat until tender and slightly caramelized, about 20 minutes. In a large bowl, use a large spoon or your hands to mash together beans, carrots, cornmeal, breadcrumbs, chili powder, salt, cilantro, ¼ cup water, and caramelized onions. If mixture is too dry to hold together, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time.

Using your hands, form mini burger patties that match the size of your buns or mini slider rolls.

Grill: Wrap each patty in aluminum foil and grill on each side for 8 minutes.

No grill: In a large non-stick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium/high heat and fry patties. Let each patty get browned and slightly crisp on each side before flipping (about 3 minutes on each side). Add more olive oil to skillet as you continue to fry more patties.

Spicy Mango Sauce
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Guacamole
In a large bowl, mash together the avocado and lime juice, then fold in the salsa fresca. Season with salt and pepper to taste.