Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers.

I don't know about y'all but I really love beans, so the idea of a bean burger has always appealed to me. Being a healthy alternative to red meat was a plus too.

*As I've said before, though I love the taste of red meat, it's not really great friends with my stomach.


I used this recipe from allrecipes.com as a starting point for my first attempt at black bean burgers. My "burgers" were actually a combination of my favorite advice for changes I took from several different reviews of the original recipe.
(I would recommend trying some of the ideas at the bottom of this post on your first go-around to give your burgers a bit more flavor.)

So my recipe looked like this; (everything in red is a change I made to the original recipe.)

1/4 cup quinoa (cook this first and mix it in when smashing the beans)
(quinoa uses a 2:1 ratio like rice, so I used 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup quinoa)
1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained, rinsed and dried  
(I dried mine on paper towels, this  helps keep them from falling apart later.)
2 hatch chili peppers, cut into 2 inch pieces (these are our new favorite pepper of the South, you can use bell peppers as called for if you can't get them)
1/2 sweet onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 egg
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin (I thought that the cumin was a bit overpowering, so I'll use less and add different flavors next time.)
1 teaspoon chili sauce (I used Sriracha Chili Sauce)
1 cup bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Directions

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty. Mix in cooked quinoa. (I mashed it a lot with a pastry blender.)
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Strain out the excess liquid in a fine strainer. (I pushed the mix against the strainer to get as much liquid as possible out.) Then stir into mashed beans.

   

   Just after adding the pepper, onion and garlic. My bowl sure makes the beans look like beef.

4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce. (I added a bit of salt too.)
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

*everything in black is from the original recipe from allrecipes.com which you can find here.

*I put the patties in the freezer until we actually cooked them to help them keep their form.

We grilled onion and pepper to put on our burgers, added a little mozzarella,  some fresh guacamole and we topped it all with spinach.

So, I think when eating vegetarian burgers it's important to not expect it to taste like a hamburger, because it doesn't.  Think of it as a bean dish and it'll be a lot more delicious to you.


Both Kevin and I agreed that we wanted the actual bean burger to be "bursting with flavor" a little more and I think our next ones will be.
We are really excited to try a "teriyaki-style" burger with sliced pineapple on top. We also want to do a "mexi-style" burger with taco seasonings with fresh pico and guacamole on top.

Happy Friday!