Food Network Friday – Chilli Relleno Burgers

It was Kim‘s turn to pick what we were veganizing for this Food Network Friday (hosted by Tami).  Kim is even more obsessed with chillis than I am, so I was not at all surprised when she picked this Chilli Relleno Burger. I make burgers a lot but always follow other people’s recipes so I approached this one with caution. I was thinking of lots of ways I could make the burger but the more I read the recipe, the more something didn’t sit right. Isn’t the whole point of chilli rellenos that they are stuffed? A bit of roast chilli sitting on top of a burger didn’t feel like a chilli relleno to me. My mind began to drift back to testing for Joni’s burger book and the fabulous recipes she has in there for stuffed, or “inside out” burgers. My mind was set. Unfortunately for you, I pretty much used her recipe for the actual burger part, so I can’t share it, but I did incorporate cumin and oregano into the mix to carry over flavours from the original. It’s very easy to do; you make up your burger mix then make 8 patties, put the filling on the bottom 4 then press the other 4 on the top and squish the edges so the filling is in the middle, then bake them under foil.

For the filling, I pretty much used the topping ingredients from the original recipe, but since we can’t get poblanos I used red pepper and some chilli powder along with the onion, tomato and garlic. I mixed that with some Daiya cheddar* and a squirt of mustard and that was the filling. The Daiya melted wonderfully during baking so that when I cut into the burger I got a nice tasty ooze.

I served it on a bun alongside a killer macaroni salad that’s also taken from the burger book – yes, there are sides and sauces in it too.

This was a lovely tasty firm burger with a great filling. If you’re going to call something stuffed, got to stuff it, surely?

* The lovely Carla sent me a packet of cheddar Daiya to experiment with what would happen to Daiya going across the ocean. Answer: I’m not dead yet. UK people, take note!

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