I went to Urban Harvest Farmer’s Market with an open mind this past Saturday to figure out what local ingredients I wanted to highlight in this week’s burger. At the Plant It Forward stand, I saw an array of radishes, and my eye honed in on the beautiful red and white French breakfast radishes!
You will be seeing a lot of radishes in my dishes this cold season.
These radishes are slightly peppery with an amazing crunch. I normally eat them on toast or with rice, but I realized I could use them as the root vegetable base of my burger this week!
Sunchokes are really cool and are starting to gain popularity!
The Plant It Forward stand also had some sunchokes as a part of their harvest this week. This root vegetable, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are extremely versatile.
Raw, they have a water chestnut type texture and mild flavor. Slicing and roasting them in herbs allows for some slow cooked caramelization that produces a fantastic flavor similar to slow roasted potatoes.
For this burger, I thinly sliced some sunchokes and lightly fried them in oil to get a nice flavorful texture element!
I love when farmers can extend the season of their harvest.
That is how I was able to find plums in the fall in Houston! A farmer with some bountiful fig and plum trees was able to sun-dry some summer plums and package them for sale during the cold season.
Dried plums are also known as prunes. Prunes always sounded gross to me as a kid, but I was definitely missing out. These are great as a dry snack. I rehydrated them in water, Meyer lemon, vanilla, and cinnamon, and they were an absolute treat in this burger.
This sweet and savory burger is perfect for a Houston holiday.
The radishes were savory and peppery, and the plums were sweet. I also used these ingredients in the burger:
- Texas cream peas – I wanted to use white beans and I had some local ones in my freezer.
- Green onion – these are bountiful at market now that we have had some cold weather.
- Garlic powder, basil, and thyme – really a classic with white beans. This combination worked wonders.
- Brown rice flour – my favorite binder to hold my burgers together. It is not overpowering, so it lets the vegetable flavors shine.
I did two topping combinations this week!
The original burger had fried sunchokes, spicy greens, radish aioli, and Revival Provisions Jon Di Baptist mustard!
I was surprised at how well the plum flavor came through the patty, so I highlighted that a bit more in my second take. I finely chopped the spicy greens this time, and I coated them in a balsamic-dijon dressing. I used some goat cheese chevre by Blue Heron Farms for a vegetarian version of this burger.
Try this one yourself!
I have included a video and recipe to allow you to make this burger for yourself. This patty is unbelievably flavorful. You will be a white bean fan forever!
Radish and Plum White Bean Burger Patty
Equipment
- Food processor
- Cast iron skillet
Ingredients
Plum Puree
- 20 dried plums pits removed
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 Meyer lemon
- 1 splash vanilla extract
- 1 cinnamon stick
Radish and Plum White Bean Patty
- 1 lb cooked Texas cream peas or any other white bean
- 1/2 lb French breakfast radishes or other spicy radish
- 2 stalks green onion
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tbsp unrefined salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 cup brown rice flour
Instructions
Plum Puree
- Add pitted plums, water, vanilla extract, and cinnamon stick to a small sauce pot. Add zest and juice of a ripe Meyer lemon.
- Heat to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Plums will rehydrate and release some of their flavor into the pan sauce.
- Add pot ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth.
Radish and Plum White Bean Patty
- Gently blend white beans in food processor. Leave about 1/4 of the beans whole.
- Wash radishes and blend in food processor until pieces are about 1/8".
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat.Wash and slice green onions into thin slices. Sauté for about 5 minutes in olive oil until soft. Add a pinch of salt and pepper before removing from the skillet.
- In a large bowl, combine white beans, chopped radish, green onions, 1/2 cup plum puree, and seasonings.Mix to combine.
- Add in rice flour and mix to combine. If mixture is sticky and hard to handle, add a bit more rice flour, about 1/4 cup at a time until patties are easy to form.
- Heat oven to 400ºF.Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil.
- Form patties and sear on each side for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown.
- Place entire skillet in oven. Cook burgers for 5 minutes on each side.
- Make a burger with aioli, mustard, chopped greens, goat cheese, lettuce and tomato, or whatever your heart desires!