Vegetarian Sliders with Fry Sauce

Summer has fully arrived and the backyard has become my second kitchen. Eduardo grill is running every weekend and I have stopped fighting it and started participating, which means I marinate the meat and Eduardo chars it and between us we produce food that is slightly burnt on the outside and perfectly seasoned on the inside, which is the signature Delgado-Ortiz grilling style and I am fine with it.

Lucas is growing. He is six weeks old and already looking at things with intention — he watches my face when I hold him, his eyes tracking my movements the way you track a train you want to catch. Jenny says he does this with me more than with anyone else, which I choose to believe is because he recognizes my voice from all the cooking narration I did while holding him. I cook and I talk. I tell Lucas about the sofrito. I tell him about the beans. I tell him about Abuela Consuelo and Mami and the kitchen in Bayamon. He does not understand a word. He does not need to. The words are going in, settling into his baby brain the way sofrito settles into a pot of oil, and someday — years from now, decades from now — he will smell garlic cooking and he will feel something he cannot name, a warmth, a recognition, and that will be me. That will be his abuela, speaking to him from the kitchen, from the very beginning of his life.

Mami has been good this week. Clear days. She remembers everyone names. She remembers what she ate yesterday. She told me a story about Abuela Consuelo that I have never heard — about how Abuela Consuelo used to dance in the kitchen while she cooked, a little merengue step between the stove and the counter, and the dancing was part of the cooking, the rhythm of the music was the rhythm of the stirring, and the food tasted like dancing. I can see it. I can see my grandmother, a woman I knew only as old and still, young and dancing in a kitchen full of music. Mami gave me that image. The fog retreated long enough for her to hand me a gift, and I am holding it, and I will not let it go.

Made a big batch of pinchos for a neighborhood block party. Pork skewers marinated in adobo, grilled to perfection. The neighbors lined up. Patricia had three. Dona Mirta had two and said, Very good, Carmen. I said, Thank you, Mirta. We are friends now. Real friends. The pasteles war is ancient history. The peace is permanent. The pinchos sealed it.

The pinchos are what everyone remembers from that block party, but I kept thinking about the people who don’t eat meat — and honestly, about having something lighter to put on the table alongside all that beautiful grilled pork. These vegetarian sliders with fry sauce have become my go-to when I need to feed a crowd without standing over the grill for hours, and that creamy, tangy sauce? Doña Mirta would absolutely ask for the recipe. Some things bring people together just as surely as smoke and adobo.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 12 sliders

Ingredients

For the fry sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon dill pickle relish
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
For the sliders:
2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, drained and rinsed, patted dry
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil, for cooking
12 slider buns, split
12 small leaves butter lettuce
2 medium Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings
6 slices pepper jack cheese, halved

Instructions

Make the fry sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, ketchup, pickle relish, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Mash the beans. Place the dried black beans in a large bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher until mostly smooth with some texture remaining — you want a few chunks for body.
Form the patties. Add the breadcrumbs, egg, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper to the mashed beans. Stir until the mixture holds together. Divide into 12 equal portions and shape each into a small round patty about 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.
Cook the patties. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet or cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook the patties 3 to 4 minutes per side until a dark crust forms. Add the remaining olive oil between batches as needed. In the last minute of cooking, lay a half slice of pepper jack on each patty and cover the pan briefly to melt.
Toast the buns. Place the slider buns cut-side down in the same skillet over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes until lightly golden.
Assemble. Spread a generous layer of fry sauce on both the top and bottom bun. Layer the bottom bun with a lettuce leaf, a tomato slice, a cheese-topped patty, and a few rings of red onion. Cap with the top bun and secure with a toothpick if serving at a party. Repeat with remaining sliders.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegetarian Sliders with Fry Sauce — The Block Party That Sealed the Peace