If you follow my blog for some time now, you probably figured that some of my posts are more focused on a technical side of cooking – like the one showing you how to make pasta pappardelle. Most of my posts, however, are more in a form of a photo show, where I’m trying to picture my vision of the cooking process, like the one about pumpkin gnocchi. I guess I do it because I simply love food photography, and I think it’s an amazing world of composition, styling, props and different tricks just to show to all of us the beauty of food. I call it”a macro static food” world, and I remember the day when I went with my camera to the birthday party where I was asked to photograph the whole bunch of running kinds! My boyfriend was looking at me and he was laughing to his tears, because I was complaining about the fact the the kids were moving!! After 15 minutes I was fed up and exhausted and said to him ” Can’t they just stop for a second or two?!” I guess this is the comfort food photography gives you. Most of the time it’s static,sic! the burger can get cold, but it cannot run! And you can take your time and decide when you want to take the “hero” shot. Unless you got an assignment and you’re about to take a picture of a hyper active chicken, than yes, you do not have that comfort! Another thing is the inspiration. On many occasions some pictures are in my head way before I actually start cooking- do you have the same experience? With these burgers it was a pure accident, but I was looking for an inspiration and I was ready to cook something new. I come across with this recipe in one of the ladies’ magazines I brought from home and I thought it was not only a good one, but also I could experiment with pictures. So here we are. These burgers are delicious- that’s for sure, but the ingredients gave me also an opportunity to spend some quality time with my camera. Just the two of us 🙂 I hope you are going to like it.
I served these burgers with some caponata, which I brought from Sicily, but in the original recipe you serve it with tomato salsa, and I will share it here with you. Also, the burgers are vegan, but I served them with a bit of thick, yummy Greek yogurt mixed with a drop of lemon juice. Let me tell you- you are not going to be disappointed for sure!
Ingredients
Makes 5 big burgers, preparation time- it depends on how long it takes to cook the beans, for the burgers 15 -20 min
The Burgers
- 2,5 glass of different kind of beans- like on the pictures 🙂
- 2 medium sized onions
- 1 jalapeno pepper- or any other pepper similar to jalapeno- I couldn’t find jalapeno in my grocery shop
- 4 cloves of garlic
- coriander
- 1/2 a glass of sunflower seeds- fry them a little bit in an iron skillet
- 1 teaspoon of red pepper
- salt and black pepper
- vegetable oil and breadcrumbs for frying the burgers
Tomato Salsa
- 4 big tomatoes- they need to be peeled
- 1 white onion
- 2 big bell peppers
- 1-2 jalapeno peppers
- coriander
- freshly squeezed lemon juice- you need 1 lemon
Dressing
- 1 Greek yogurt
- lemon juice
- 2 cloves of garlic
Method
In advance soak the beans for 20 min, and cook them until become tender. When the beans are ready, blend them but leave some not completely blended, to give the burger a texture. Set aside.
Chop the onions and jalapeno pepper, crush the garlic and fry the ingredients together until golden brown.
Combine together the bean mixture and the onions. Add also the sunflower seeds, coriander- chop it, red sweet pepper and season everything accordingly.
When all ingredients are evenly combined start forming burgers, dust them in breadcrumbs and fry until become golden brown.
According to the original recipe this is what you need to do in order to make the salsa:
Chop all ingredients, combine together, add some salt and pepper if necessary and place in the fridge. I believe you need to prepare it in advance, and serve it with the burgers once ready.
Like I mentioned before, I brought some caponata from Sicily so I didn’t make the salsa this time. These burgers are yummy with some yogurt dressing- simply take one yogurt, add a bit of lemon juice, crush the garlic, add it as well and mix all together – it’s ready! Enjoy !
Plate du Jour 
Hello there, we tried these and they tasted delicious. Next time I will leave the vegetables more chunky though. Thank you Marta. 🙂
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Vegan burger looks delicious:-) love it Marta
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Oh thank you! It was really good indeed. I loved the combination of the burger and the Greek yogurt!
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What a gorgeous photo! I just had a really big dinner but I still feel like eating this burger.
Are you using natural light? Or you have a toolkit by your side when shooting the photo?
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Thank you! I’m glad you like it! I work only with natural light and I use macro lens f/2.8 100 mm L by Canon. I don’t think the artificial light is good for food photography, but of course it depends on the preference 🙂
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Ah then you must have some great light source 🙂 It’s getting hard for me to get good natural light after work and cooking for dinner. It’s getting dark so quickly in winter..
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I work only during the weekends. This is the only time when I can take some pictures, and also in winter as you say it gets dark around 5 p.m. so no pictures anyway 😦
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How lush does this burger look? Oh my! As for your experience of photographing kids – hilarious. They really need a video camera, don’t they? how frustrating for you. But it spotlighted how easy still-life is in comparison 😉
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Damn delicious and healthy vegan burger!!!
definitely not feeling guily to dig in into it….
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Dedy you can have this burger for any of your dishes!! Nothing can save you now, one day I’m getting on that plane for sure 😀
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Whaaaaat?!?
I don’t know how I missed this post!
I must have been in a daze or something.
These pictures are AWESOME Marta!
It always helps when there is such contrast in the food itself but you really are setting the bar.
*round of applause*
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Haha! There you go, you missed it Miss 🙂 contrast can actually be an issue, because you need to be careful with the choice of props, but I think it came out nicely in the end. Try the burger darling, you’ll see how good it is 😀
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Yes captain!
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Your photos are so amazing that despite of not being much of a vegan burger eater, they still make me want to eat this! “)
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Haha Ronit this is a real complement, thank you! I know it doesn’t sound modest but even I like these pictures- these burgers looked really tasty, and they were very good! Of course we both know nothing can replace the real yummy burger, but it was nice to change something 🙂
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This burger of yours Marta is a must make. It looks positively delicious. I will let you know how it turns out for sure. Have a great week. 🙂
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Thank you so much! Please let me know how it went, and I hope you’re going to have a nice week too 🙂
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I will for sure 🙂
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Those burgers look damn fine and the pics are fricking amazing! 🙂
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Looks lovely and I’ll be trying your veggie burgers for certain!
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Beautiful Marta 🙂 You are making me hungry, they look so tempting and the pictures are superb. Enjoy your weekend xx
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Linda I feel so productive these days!! There is a cake on the way 😀 I think anytime I have to study and learn I have more ideas in my head! You have a nice weekend too xx
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I love veggie burgers, and this one looks fabulous. And it is obvious you had a fun time taking all those gorgeous pictures.
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I did! I was sick for the whole week, home alone so it was a lot of fun 🙂 I hope you’re fine with your research work!
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I finished! Sent it yesterday 😀 Now I am freeeeeeee
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Yuuuuupeeeeee!!! Well done!!
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Lovely idea…the beans look wonderful. Pictures are great
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Thank you Roger! You see, I’m practising as you told me 😀
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Marta simply gorgeous burgers!!! And those pictures of lentils, I don’t think I’ve ever seen lentils look so fabulous 😀
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You know when I was going through the picures I couldn’t believe these burgers looked much better than the usual ones! So pretty, and shiny and just perfect! Have a lovely weekend Naina xx
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I just love your photos Marta. The recipe looks wonderful, and Idon’t believe I’ve ever seen prettier beans before. 🙂
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Thank you Bonnie,that’s so kind of you, but this time nothing can beat your cute pumpkin tea set 🙂
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Beautiful still lives 😉 but the burger looks amazing! I’d never have thought it was missing its meat …
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It looks cool doesn’t it! I was surprised myself to be honest. The final result is kind of spectacular 😀
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