This recipe steals many of the delicious flavours usually found in Thai fish cakes and turns them into vegan sweetcorn burgers. If you want to make them for kids who don’t like chilli heat, make the burger mix up without adding the chilli or curry paste, then remove half the mixture and keep it chilli free. Mix just half the amount of curry paste and chopped chilli with the remaining, grown-up half. Choose buns which suit your dietary needs. If you can’t eat alliums, you can leave out the spring onions. Omit the peanuts if you have a peanut allergy. If you can’t eat chickpeas, swap the besan/chickpea flour for a beaten egg. Please note you will need a food processor.
This recipe was first published in LEON Happy Fast Food (published by Octopus), which I wrote with Jack Burke, John Vincent and the team at LEON restaurants. Photo by Steven Joyce.
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Ingredients
frozen sweetcorn 125 g
ground cumin ½ tsp
red Thai curry paste 1 ½ tbsp
kaffir lime leaves 2
spring onions 2 (chopped)
fresh coriander 1 tbsp (chopped)
green beans 50 g (chopped)
red chillies 2 tsp
chickpea flour 50 g
baking powder ½ tsp
cucumber ½ (sliced)
carrot 1 (sliced)
shallot 1 (sliced)
caster sugar pinch
mayonnaise ¼ tbsp
burger buns 4 (toasted)
roasted peanuts 1 tbsp (chopped)
sweet chilli sauce 1
little gem lettuce 1 (chopped)
Method
Make the sweetcorn burgers
Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the frozen sweetcorn, bring back to the boil, then drain.
Set aside about a third of the sweetcorn in a bowl and put the remainder into a food processor.
Finely chop the spring onions,fresh coriander and green beans. Finely chop the red chilli - keep half for the salad.
Add the cumin, red Thai curry paste and kaffir lime leaves and blitz, scraping down the sides once or twice, to form a paste.
Add the spring onions, coriander, green beans and half the red chilli to the sweetcorn bowl and mix.
Add the sweetcornpaste into the bowl. Add the chickpea flour, baking powder, lime juice and 2 tablespoons of water.
Season well and mix together into a thick batter that drops off a spoon, adding a dash more water if needed.
Cook the patties
Pour about 1 tablespoon of cookingoil into a wide frying pan over a medium-low heat.
When shimmering hot, cook a nugget of the batter for a minute or two on each side. Taste to check the seasoning and heat level; adjust as needed.
Divide the mix into one patty per person, each about 10cm across.
Add two to the hot pan, then cook for 3-4 minutes, until deep golden on the bottom – turn the heat to low if they are browning any faster.
Carefully flip them over and cook the other side until deep golden, about 3 minutes. Remove, keep warm and repeat to cook the remaining burgers adding more oil as needed.
Prep the toppings
Thinly slice the cucumber. Thinly slice the carrot into matchsticks. Finely slice the shallot.
Place the cucumber, carrot, remaining red chilli, shallot, lime juice and a pinch of caster sugar into a small bowl and toss together.
Serve
Halve and toast the burger buns.
Spread a little mayo on the bottom of each bun, then add a quarter of the dressed veg and a pinch of the chopped peanuts, if using.
Add a patty, then drizzle over a little sweet chilli sauce or Sriracha.
Finish with coriander, lettuce leaves and the bun tops.
