Homemade Black Bean Burgers ♥ Recipe

Today's recipe: Quick and easy black bean burgers, made at home with easy pantry ingredients. You can even freeze your own!

For years, I have forsworn veggie burgers. (Ewww, the salty-slimy 'Garden' Burger? To my taste, more like a compost heap.) No more, no more!! I've been missing out, completely, because -- yay, rah! -- we can make homemade black bean burgers.

And it's easy! And cheap! And -- this is the crucial test -- they taste great! And they pull together in a flash. And better than THAT? They freeze! Next time I'll make up a big batch, vacuum pack them with the FoodSaver, to have on hand, pronto, for a quick lunch or light supper.

PS To the punctuation police blinking in disbelief about all the exclamation points? Try one of these black bean burgers, you'll be backflipping too. (!!!!)

RECIPE for HOMEMADE BLACK BEAN BURGERS

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 20 minutes
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped green onion, roughly chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped poblano pepper (I used 2 rings of Pickled Jalapeño Rings)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro (I used parsley)
15 ounces canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup toasted whole-grain bread crumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Kosher salt to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil for cooking

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmery. Stir in the green onion, peppers and garlic and cook until just beginning to turn brown. Transfer to a food processor. Add the cilantro and process until roughly chopped, several pulses. Add the beans and pulse five or six times, so beans are broken up but still in small chunks. (You don't want to overprocess, you're not aiming for a black bean paste.) Transfer to a large bowl, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Form into four patties.

In the same large skillet, heat another tablespoon or so of olive oil until shimmery. Gently add the patties, cook each side until browned, about 5 minutes total.

FREEZING TIPS If freezing, from into patties and let patties chill thoroughly, then transfer to freezer bags or vacuum pack in a FoodSaver. For better results, thaw before frying, just drop the freezer bag into a dish of cold water for 15 minutes.


KITCHEN NOTES
The inspiring recipe says to let the mixture refrigerate for 30 minutes - 4 hours before frying. I cooked two right away, another two an hour later. No difference.
The inspiring recipe says these burgers are too delicate for cooking on a grill. I would think you could get away with it, so long as a cooking basket is used, not the standard grill.
Note to Vegetarians

A Veggie Venture - Printer Friendly Recipe Graphic



MORE FAVORITE DRIED BEAN RECIPES
~ 15-Bean Soup ~
~ Chard & Chickpeas with Feta ~
~ Chicka Chicka Chickpea Lunch ~

~ more dried bean recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

FOR THOSE WHO EAT MEAT
~ Spinach Burgers ~

from Kitchen Parade, my food column
~ Green Chile Burgers ~





Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009

Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. awesome! i never thought of freezing homemade veggie burgers, but it totally makes sense!

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  2. I've been making huge batches of black beans in my slow cooker, and packaging them in burger size packs for the freezer. When the urge to have a black bean burger strikes, the beans are all ready to go.

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  3. I keep seeing awesome-looking recipes for veggie burgers and I have been dying to make them ever since! This is seriously an easy recipe too. I can't wait until Spring Break - this will definitely be on my to-cook list :P

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  4. I have to say, I love black bean burgers. I think so many omnivores rule them out as a "vegetarian/vegan's only" option, which is just so silly!

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  5. I did the unthinkable the other day I had a new bag of organic dry black beans and added another half empty "older" bag. Couldn't get them cooked. Old is old when it comes to beans.
    I will try your burgers though when I get another new bag cooked.

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  6. I love bean burgers. Being able to make them at home will be great! Thanks for this recipe, I'll be trying it soon!

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  7. Veggie Vixen -- Cool! I was so pleased that the frozen versions were nearly as good as the fresh.

    Lydia ~ What a great idea, thanks for the tip.

    Chris ~ We're out to inspire you, for sure!

    JoAnne ~ That was my thinking, exactly! In fact, if it weren't 20 degrees, I'd want to host a burger fest right now, just to show case these little guys!

    Tanna ~ OOOPs!

    Veggie Belly ~ I hope you love them too!

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  8. Just found your blog. These look great!

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  9. These were terrifyingly good! I substituted some ingredients for what I had on hand: kidney beans for black and jalapeno+organic red bell pepper for poblano. Topped the patties off with clover sprouts and fresh organic avocado and I w a s i n H E A V E N!

    Cheers!

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  10. Yum! I cannot wait to try these.

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  11. Are these delicate? I made a different recipe for spicy black bean patties this week and even after I added an egg to the recipe they still fell apart when I tried to flip them. I ended up serving them crumbled over lettuce with salsa and quacamole. very yummy but not the burger I was going for...

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  12. Courtney ~ Thanks for stopping by!

    Chloe ~ Terrifyingly good, a great description!

    Jenny ~ Let me know how it goes! Maybe you'll think they are 'terrifyingly good'?!

    Jasmine ~ They are delicate, yes, but I had no trouble turning them. It took no particular finesse, just a little care.

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  13. Sorry, two questions:

    1. When making the pickled jalapeno rings, do you remove the seeds or you just pickled entire pepper with the seeds?

    2. How do you make your toasted whole-grain bread crumbs?

    This will be our next week's dinner. Thanks so much for sharing all your healthy recipes.

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  14. Please, don't apologize! I'm happy to clear up anything that's unclear.

    re the jalape$tilden;o rings: I just checked my jar, it's actually been in the fridge for a couple of years now, that's why I love having them on hand, they keep forever and I can use just one or two as needed. It has a few seeds in the liquid, so I may well have taken out them out when I made them. The 'heat' in chile peppers comes first in the membranes, second in the seeds, third in the flesh. So for me, anyway, it's more a matter of texture, I'd rather not have the seeds.

    re the toasted bread crumbs, whenever I have leftover bread, I'll toast it and then grind it in the food processor, then freeze in small freezer bags.

    Hope this helps, I hope you love the black bean burgers!

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  15. Sounds delicious..I might have to make a batch of these for my freezer - they sound like a great weeknight dinner along with some sweet potato fries.

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  16. I like how you added poblano peppers to these. They look fantastic. We did an episode for a Southwestern cookout last summer and made Sprouted Pumpkin Seed Burgers and a Guajillo Ketchup. I think the ketchup would go great on these also!

    http://www.kitchencaravan.com/recipe/sprouted-pumpkin-seed-burger

    http://www.kitchencaravan.com/recipe/guajillo-ketchup

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  17. I love black beans!!
    Thank you very much for sharing your recipe.
    Cheers.

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  18. I have made several different black bean burgers lately. Next time if you have some try adding in a bit of corn. It adds just a little extra flavor and texture to make them a bit more divine.

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  19. Aren't bean burgers great?

    Last summer, we were making terrific bean burgers using three kinds of dried beans - black, kidney and garbanzo - we added thyme, onion and chili flakes and were doing backflips as well. (compare our recipe)

    We haven't tried freezing them though and will try to remember when it is barbecue season again (if it is EVER barbecue season again - it just snowed...)

    -Elizabeth, dedicated meat eater who will NEVER eat meat burger again - bean burgers are WAY better.

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  20. This is a great recipe because it doesnt use any flour or chickpeas. I want the black flavor to dominate my burgers. Lovely post :)

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  21. I made these last night, and my husband and I really enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  22. I just made these and they were delicious. Since I don't own a food processor, I used one of those handheld stick blenders. It worked just fine. Using dried beans, this recipe was about 1/10 the cost of packaged bean burgers and much, much better. Thank you!

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  23. 2 things I LOVE about this recipe:
    a. I've never made any burger before and this was pretty much fool proof.
    b. I made these with ingredients I had ready at home!

    They remind me ALOT of the Burger King Veggie Bean burgers I always buy in the UK. They aren't sold where I live:( so you can imagine my excitement about finding this recipe.

    I added a slice of Kraft american cheese. I should have added a tomato to give it a juicier taste, but overall this recipe is a winner. :D I served with fries.

    Also, I don't have a food processor so I just made sure to chop the veggies finely and mashed the beans with a fork.

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna