Vegan Burger with Tarragon "Mayo"

I’ve had a few different versions of these deep fried whole mushrooms lately and they are the dream when made with good quality ingredients.  I wanted to make this completely vegan but of course you could add a thin slice of Gruyère on top!  I also managed to make this a little lighter using spelt flour and it’s the beer that gives you the wonderful crispy skin batter.  I’m in France at the moment and wasn’t able to find Portobello mushrooms but I think they would be the best type as they are large and quite thin.  You basically want the “patty” to be about 2cm thick so if its bigger then I would slice it.  You will always need to slice the stem off though.  You can also buy veganaise but it took literally about 1 minute to make and then I could make it taste how I wanted.  This really is a fun dinner and makes a change from the usual burger!

Vegan/Spelt/DF

Makes 4-6 burgers depending on size of mushrooms

Ingredients:

6 Portobello mushrooms, (I found large white mushrooms and had to slice them in half)

For the spelt beer batter:

180g spelt flour plus an extra 150g for dusting

1.5l sunflower oil

240ml cold beer

1 tsp ground ginger 

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp dijon mustard or 1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp paprika powder

sea salt and black pepper

For the veganaise:

220ml sunflower oil

120ml unsweetened soya milk 

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Few drops lemon juice

1/3 tsp honey

1/2 garlic clove, mashed to a paste

sea salt and black pepper

For tarragon paste:

40 tarragon leaves

100g sunflower oil

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Add the veganaise ingredients into a blender (I used a NutriBullet) and blend for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened to a mayonnaise consistency.  Scrape everything into a bowl and rest in the fridge.

Add the ingredients for the tarragon paste into the same blender (washed) and blend to a smooth consistency.  Add this to a bowl and then stir in 8 heaped tablespoons of the vegan mayo and store the rest for another time.  

Pour the sunflower oil into a large saucepan and slowly bring it up to a medium to high heat.  You can always check that it is the right temperature when you throw in a pinch of flour and it sizzles.  Now start on the beery batter, get a large bowl and add the 180g spelt flour, spices and seasoning.  Slowly pour in the cold beer and mix everything together to form a nice thick batter.  Add the remaining flour into a separate bowl seasoning with salt and pepper.  Dip a mushroom into the plain flour and coat in a light layer.  Then dip into the beer batter until evenly coated and allow the excess to drip off.  Carefully drop the mushroom into the hot oil and fry for about 4-5 minutes or until the batter is golden and crisp. It may take longer depending on the temperature of the oil.  Fish out burger with tongs and leave to drain on some kitchen towel.  Continue battering the remaining mushrooms in batches.  Serve in baby gem lettuce or radicchio (pictured) with pickles, parsley and the tarragon “mayo” on top!