Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders

Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders, a wonderful way to enjoy a burger without that feeling of being stuffed and heavy. Hosting wonderful flavors such as the black bean marinade, caramelized onions and beautifully crisp sweet potato spirals, which leaves your taste buds with a roller coaster of sensations!

Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders, a delicious charred mini burger, with loads of flavors encased by a wonderful grilled ciabatta bun. What better way to beat the winter blahs than with these beauties.

Black bean anything I was introduced through the wonderful cuisines of Asia. I remember the first time I tasted it, a dish called black bean chicken. The taste somewhat fermented and pungent but unusually pleasant with proteins. I loved the combinations of mushrooms, green pepper, onions, nicely stir fried to preserve their crispness. Well, knowing that flavor and inspired by Jamie Oliver I wanted to make a wonderful slider incorporating what I learned from Jamie in his 15-minute meals show and my experience with black bean. I came up with a dish hosting some Asian flavors and mixing it up a bit culturally.

Memorable inspiration for Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders!

When I think of burgers I am always brought back to my childhood. You have to understand that living in an Italian family back in the late sixties and early seventies did not really integrate Canadian or American cuisine in a big way. It took some time. For us, it was introduced in our Saturday excursions to the farmers' markets. My parents so missed fresh produce, coming from a land of bountiful harvests and sometimes two per year. Also fresh chicken, and some old ones for soup making. I can still hear my nonna saying old chickens make for a delicious soup, and being that creative mind that I was thought does that mean nonna would make a wonderful soup as I heard her being called old bird, yuckkkk!!!!!!! That ended quickly with a most absurd visual, and back to the present moment. Back to what I wanted to share, so Saturdays were market days and the only market those days was a central downtown market. Close to this market was a plethora of department stores. In those days they always had a diner located in them. Yes a diner, red leather topped stools and banquets, the long counter, pie displays and those nostalgic posters of delicious strawberry or chocolate milk shakes. Not the ones like most places today that uses powdered mixtures, but using fresh milk, ice cream, and fruit, real fruit! I lived for those days and most of the week I would dream of going either to the Hudson's Bay, or McClouds, or even Woolworths, and ordering finally a cheeseburger deluxe which included crinkle cut fries, and of course a wonderfully thick, creamy delicious milkshake, alternating in between strawberry and chocolate as I was not one to discriminate. I would single-minded eat one fry at a time trying to bite into them in between the crinkles, slowly dipping them into the ketchup mound that I squeezed out of one of those plastic red ketchup bottle dispensers. Using only the right amount of ketchup as not to make the fries soggy and preserving that wonderful super fried potato. Then the burger, biting my way around the outside perimeter as the cheese was coming out the sides. Then working my way in tasting the basic condiments of that time, ketchup and mustard. To me, it was out of this world good. Don't get me wrong, the food at home was fantastic, well with the exception of liver, belly skin or tripe, and the occasional goat head. But this burger was taboo, my dad called it dirty food, who knows what they put in that food, even the cook smoking could drop ashes into it. That never deterred me it was taboo and if it was dirty food it tasted dam good.

Today burgers have come a long way in the forever growing food revolution. Gourmet burger joints sprouting up everywhere, hosting hundreds of condiments and combinations to have your burger. Well, I am going to keep it relatively simple. A mixture of some Asian spices like black bean sauce, with typical beef seasoning for a marinade that will flavor the good quality organic beef, ours bought at Blush Lane Organic Market produced by Sunworks Farms for the day. I love preparing my meats in the morning, so it has all day to get to know each other. I love when I get back home and peel the plastic from the bowl, this aroma lifts into the air with such ferocity that it starts your stomach growling and an impatience to get grilling right away.

Thinking of the flavors of this slider, caramelized onions came to mind, that sweetness and silkiness would be a great compliment. I wanted to add something crisp and we had sweet potato in the fridge. I had received a spiralizer for a gift from my daughter and only used it once and Nicoletta was excited to see it in motion. So thoughts, a nice spiraled sweet potato, seasoned with some olive oil and spices and crisped up in the oven. You could deep fry them, but I was trying to keep some health in the mix.

Those lovely morsels of beefy goodness I shaped into an oval to fit the tiny ciabatta buns, the Italian element of the dish. Grilled on a nice hot barbecue to bring out all those flavors and to remind us of those warm sunny days. At the end, I added the second Italian ingredient, a nice Asiago cheese, shredded and placed on the slider at the end so it melts slowly with the heat coming off the beef.

The sauce for these beauties, a combination of Asian flavors such as peanut sauce, sesame oil, and combining a little of my Italian in the mix with some sweet balsamic cream giving you a rich in taste and creamy texture condiment. Assembling these sliders starts with sauce spread nicely on each ciabatta. Then on goes some crisp fresh arugula followed by that wonderful juicy slider, then to be topped with caramelized onion,  crispy sweet potato, and sandwiched with the top ciabatta.

These sliders are just so scrumptious The ciabatta bun with that rustic crust and slight smoky char. The arugula adding a fresh tender pepper flavor to the mix. Then the beef slider, and all those spices, the black bean pungent and fermented adding some acidity, the peanut sauce with the nutty element, sriracha kicking in some spice and that oh so juicy beef cooked perfectly with the caramelized juices crusting the outside, sealing those juices and marinade inside. The sweetness floats in like a blanket soothing this puppy with its natural sugars slowly released while cooking, only to be awakened by the crispiness and starchy sweet of the spiraled sweet potato. This is an explosion of flavor and texture all in a small package, some say good things come in small packages, and I would have to agree after chomping down on these Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders!

Song of The Day: "Walking on the Moon" by The Police.

Black Bean Beef Burger Sliders

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• Prep Time: 8 hours 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 8 hours 55 minutes
• Yield: 8 sliders 1x

Ingredients

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Sliders:

• 500 g lean organic ground beef
• 1 tbsp black bean sauce
• 1 tbsp peanut sauce
• ½ tsp sriracha sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp blueberry juice
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
• ¼ cup bread crumbs

Caramelized Onions:

• 1 yellow onion chopped into strands
• 1 tbsp good organic olive oil
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp paprika
• Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
• ¼ cup of grated Asiago cheese

Sweet potato:

• 1 medium sweet potato spiral cut
• 2 tbsp good organic olive oil
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp paprika
• pinch of garlic powder
• Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
• 2 tbsp water

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp peanut sauce
• 1 tbsp balsamic creme
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp mayo
• Pinch of brown sugar

Bread:

• 8 small ciabatta buns cut in half
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Garnish

• 1 cup fresh washed Arugula

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Instructions

Sliders:

1. In a bowl mix black bean sauce, peanut sauce, sriracha, sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, onion powder, blueberry juice, salt, pepper.
2. Whisk well!
3. In another bowl put in the ground beef and separate it a bit.
4. Pour in marinade mixture and with hands mix into ground beef well.
5. Cover and put into fridge for 8 hours.

Caramelized onions:

1. In a saute pan heat olive oil and butter.
2. Toss in onions.
3. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar.
4. Stir frequently and keep heat low.
5. Add in water and let simmer slowly until onions are golden and soft. about 10 15 minutes.

Sauce:

1. In a bowl whisk peanut sauce, balsamic cream, mustard, sesame oil, mayo, brown sugar.
2. Blend until well incorporated and creamy.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge.

Sweet potato:

1. Pre- heat oven to 400 F
2. In a bowl toss the spiraled sweet potato with the olive oil, onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
3. Spread sparsely on a parchment lined baking sheet, and put in the oven.
4. Bake till crispy about 15 minutes.

Grilling:

1. Take marinated ground beef out of fridge.
2. Form ground beef into rectangular ovals about the size of your interior palm, or as big as the ciabatta bun.
3. Heat up BBQ to around 400 F
4. Place sliders on grill and cook for about 2 minutes, then turn 180 degrees and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Flip the sliders over and cook for another 2 minutes.
6. Turning one more time 180 degrees and let grill for an additional minute or so, tthis is when you want to sprinkle some of that Asiago cheese on each slider.
7. In the final minutes take ciabatta and brush with olive oil
8. Place on grill and cook till char marks appear.
9. Take ciabatta and sliders off grill.

Assembly:

1. Take sauce out of the fridge
2. Spread a good spoonful of the sauce on both the bottom and top bun
3. Lay some arugula on the bottom ciabatta.
4. Place a slider on the bottom ciabatta.
5. Put a nice portion of the caramelized onion on top.
6. Add some of the crispy sweet potato on top of the onion.
7. Top with ciabatta.
8. Ready to serve.
9. Enjoy!

Notes

The prep time includes the marination time for the ground beef. What I usually do is prepare them in the morning before work and let them marinate all day so when I come back from work they are ready to form.

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Loreto

When I am not cooking, I enjoy playing musical instruments, singing, writing. I have learned over the years to live in gratitude and enjoy the moment.