Arepa Burger

My friend who can’t eat wheat was really craving burgers the other night and a burger patty on a plate or in a lettuce wrap would just not do. I’ve always had arepas in the back of my head as an idea for a gluten free version of bread. But traditional arepas are too thin and brittle to give you that nice pillowy bread texture for your burger. Instead I made more of a thick pancake batter with the arepa flour and used that for the burger bun. It was such a success, I’d suggest you give it a try next time you’re cooking gluten free.

Lightly mash the black beans and mix everything together to form the burger patties.

Roast the poblanos and after they cool peel them to top the burgers.

Half melted butter makes the milk look curdled, but dont worry it will come out just fine!

They’re like super fluffy pancakes.

Cut them in half and they’re ready for their burgers.

Cotija cheese and poblano peppers go on the burger on the grill.

The corn cake is so light and fluffy, yet hearty, and the perfect gluten-free replacement for a bun on this burger.

Black beans mixed into the burger was a nice touch that I’ve never tried before.

1.5 cups masarepa or Harina PAN
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter melted
1.5 cups milk(and maybe more)
1.5 cups fresh corn kernels
3 eggs

Whisk together all the wet ingredients really well so that the eggs lighten in color and increase in volume. Stir together the dry ingredients (including the corn kernels) and then mix the wet into the dry. On a hot pan (like a pancake griddle) heat some butter and add big scoops of the batter. Flip once during cooking to brown on both sides and cook through. This should probably take about 4 mins per side depending on how big you make them.

Split the “buns” in half. The burger we ate on my arepa buns were made of ground beef, black beans, scallions, and chili powder; topped with roasted poblano slices and cotija cheese.