CHEF and barbecue expert Paul Yates, who tours the country serving up gourmet barbecue food on his Monolith Ceramic Grill has come up with a recipe to encourage more people to getting cooking on the outdoor grill.

Paul says: “We Brits are all about outdoor cooking as soon as summer begins, the smallest amount of nice weather brings out household barbies and in my opinion, it’s the finest way to cook.

“One misconception about barbecue cooking is that it’s only for meat, when everything from fish, seafood and vegetables can be smoked or grilled to perfection.

“Using a barbecue, particularly the new generation of barbecues like the ceramic kamado grills, releases flavours and textures that can’t fully be achieved using other methods of cooking.”

Spicy Bean Burgers

Commercially produced veggie-burgers are totally eclipsed by this vegetarian barbecue recipe, which uses cannellini although red kidney beans, haricot beans or pinto beans can be used. If using dried beans, these will have to be soaked for 24 hours first and then cooked for 30 minutes until sufficiently soft.

Ideally you want a ceramic barbecue for this one which has a cast iron plate for cooking, as veggie burgers can fall apart more easily on a grill. I cook on a plancha, which is part of the Monolith Grill barbecue I use.

Serves: 4 people

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 small onion finely chopped

• 1 clove garlic crushed

• 1 teaspoon cumin powder

• 1 teaspoon coriander

• 115g / 4 oz finely chopped mushrooms

• 400g / 14 oz can of Cannellini Beans

• 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped

• 2 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro) chopped

• Olive oil for brushing

• Salt and pepper.

Method:

• Fry up the mushrooms in the olive oil until any moisture has been driven off

• Then add the onion and garlic, and fry these ingredients for a further 2 - 3 minutes until the onion is translucent

• Now add the spice powders, continue to cook for another minute or so and then allow cooling

• Rinse the beans and then mash up in a bowl, add the mushroom mixture, the chopped chilli and coriander to complete the basic burger mix

• Mould the mixture into a good size; feel free to make a range of sizes. Once you’ve moulded your mixture into lovely burger shapes, you're ready to go

• Brush down the barbecue mat with olive oil; lay the veggie burgers. Each side should be cooked for 5 minutes over hot coals and you should have the perfect veggie burger.