Is there anything more delightful than opening a pot of hot curry powder and getting that beautiful smell that just screams “make something with me now”. I get that every time, so today when I decided to make some veggie burgers for dinner, I thought that I would curry them up a bit and give us a little spice for the evening.

I did contemplate attempting a mango chutney, but it was so fresh and delicious looking I just had to dice it and pop it in a salad au naturale, I’ve still got half a mango left, so may create some sort of dessert for tomorrow evening… if I remember, I have a tendency to forget these things and go off on a tangent, so hopefully by writing it here, I’ll have a good chance of remembering!

I had a skype call with my mum today, she had just received a load of old photos from a very old friend of hers, there were some great shots of my mum with my grandparents and also of lil’ old me as a baby. I’ve put in a request for my niece to scan the photos and send them to me, but she’s 12 and has a hectic social life, so I’ll probably be way down on the list of “to do”, I may need to bribe her!

When I was taking photos of the burger, my battery ran out before I added the cucumber and mint sauce, but you can see a tiny bit hiding under the coriander leaves! I had a pot of it on the side to add on separately.

Curried Veggie Burgers served with Mango Salad and a Cucumber & Mint dressing

MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range

Makes 8 burgers

1 cup of cooked sweet potato (roughly one large sweet potato)

1 can chickpeas

1 carrot grated

1 red pepper finely diced

2 garlic cloves

½ onion finely chopped

¼ cup brown rice (cooked)

1tsp turmeric

1 tbsp hot curry powder

½ cup oats (blitzed in food processor)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

2. To begin with peel and chop your sweet potato and add to boiling water for 10 minutes until softened, remove from heat and mash.

3. In the meantime prepare the rice – add ½ cup of brown rice to 1 ½ cups hot water, bring to the boil then turn to low heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat and add to food processor along with the chickpeas, tumeric and curry powder.

4. Heat 2 tbsp water in a sauté pan and add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes before adding this to the other ingredients in the food processor and pulse until the mixture is broken down then transfer to a large mixing bowl.

5. To the mixing bowl add in the mashed sweet potatoes, carrot, red pepper and oats and fold through.

6. Using your hands shape the mixture into 8 patties and place on the baking trays and pop in the oven for 20 -25 minutes turning the patties halfway through. Remove from heat and serve with your accompaniments.

Mango Salad

½ cup of finely chopped mango

½ red pepper, very finely sliced

1 large carrot, peeled into long strips

½ cucumber, diced

Method

Combine all the ingredients together on your plate.

Cucumber & Mint Dip

1 large cucumber

1 tsp mint sauce

½ tsp lemon juice

Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth