Catching up with a close friend over dinner last week was fun. It had been ages since we last had met, so we had lots to talk about. We decided on pizza; it’s the default cuisine when we can’t decide on what to eat. After ordering our starters and mains we continued our conversation. Our food arrived swiftly, and as the waiter placed the dishes on a tiny table, I could see my friend reach for her bag and pull out her phone.
Unaware I was watching her, she snapped our food, rearranging the table, moving the table centrepiece into the shot. It was like was she styling a full-on food shoot. She ordered me to move out of the shot, “I only want the food in the shot, not people”, so I obliged. I was now sat back from the table holding all the ugly things that could potentially spoil ‘the shot’: the bottle of water, a menu and her handbag.
“Are we done?” I asked. “Yes babes, you can start now.” Again following instructions, I tucked in. Now don’t get me wrong, I hold my iPhone up in the air and admit, I’m a keen foodie and will take snaps of pretty much everything I order or cook, but I’m a click and close kind of person. There seems to have been this evolution of now the ‘four-course meal’, snap it, starters, mains and desserts. I remember the days of blessing the food before we ate not praying for that perfect Instagram shot.
You won’t find me adding filters and hashtags for the ‘gram’ at the dining table. That I’ll do in the taxi on the way home. Happy with her food shots we continued to enjoy our food. The conversation soon switched back to Instagram and how it has changed people’s eating habits. I recently saw a cartoon online where a woman was sat in a restaurant holding a menu. The caption was to the waiter: “What can you recommend from the menu that would look great on Instagram?”
Jokes aside, Instagram is my favourite way to share food and recipes; I love the sense of community. I follow loads of people from celebrity chefs and bloggers to my favourite restaurants. I am also guilty of being a frequent poster, slightly obsessing about the number of likes I get on a recipe shot that has taken hours to perfect. What has occurred to me is that people like simple things.
A dish that’s quite complicated to create never gets as many likes as say, a chocolate cake. Recently, a humble jacket potato was getting a lot of instant-love. I cook all kinds of food: meat, veggie and vegan. As I said, Instagram brings people together. I get a lot of messages where people ask me what knives I use, or what camera I shoot my pictures on, to which I will always reply. I recently received a message that was straightforward and to the point: “Hey chef, love your feed, but where are the veegs recipes?”
By veegs I assumed she was referring to vegan recipes. Always happy to experiment I got researching, what can they eat and what shouldn’t they eat, again by ‘they’ I mean, people who choose a plant-based diet excluding dairy, eggs or any other products of animal origin. With my new found vegan knowledge courtesy of the internet, I’m now well versed in the ingredients I can use and not use. Scouring the supermarket aisles, it became apparent vegans are very well looked after. There is vegan cheese, peanut butter, even mayonnaise! So after a few attempts and recipe tweaks, I bring you my vegan burgers, on vegan bread with a dollop of vegan ketchup. One last thing, make sure you get the best shot before posting it on the gram!
VEGAN BLACK BEAN BURGERS, SERVED WITH MANGO SALSA
Makes 4, prep time 10 minutes, cooking time 10-15 minutes
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE BURGERS
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 garlic cloves chopped
½ red onion diced
1 grated carrot
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of paprika
4 tbsp of all-purpose flour
Handful of chopped coriander
1 tbsp of grated ginger
Salt & pepper
1 can of refried vegetarian black beans
FOR THE SALSA
½ a ripe avocado
½ red onion finely diced
1 mango cut into small cubes
Juice of a lime
Handful of chopped coriander
Salt & pepper
METHOD
Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Squeeze over the lime juice, season, mix and chill in the fridge.
TO SERVE
4 toasted whole meal buns
Mayonnaise
Rocket leaves
4 tomato slices
Red onion slices
½ mashed avocado
Tomato ketchup
METHOD
Heat some oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic. When the onions are soft add the carrot, spices and season. Keep stirring until all the ingredients are combined. Next, add the chopped coriander and ginger. Add two tablespoons of flour to the pan and lower the heat. Now add the refried black beans, and a little more flour and combine the ingredients. When the mixture reaches a dough-like texture, turn off the heat. Add more flour if the dough is too soft.
Allow the mixture to cool, then roll out on a floured surface. Dived the dough into four and roll out into patties. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Add some oil to a griddle pan on a medium heat, add the bean patties. Grill on each side for about 10 minutes, until they become firm. Turn off the heat while you prepare the buns. Cut the buns in half and toast. Set out on a serving dish, add some mayonnaise and rocket leaves. Next, add the bean patties. Top with sliced tomato, red onion and avocado. Serve with the mango salsa.
— Photography and food styling by Mark Setchfield. Follow him on Instagram @gasmarksix.
