Black Bean Burgers

On Saturday the King of Soup was working in the backyard all day long with our best friend Saro. They are building our new deck. It was hot in Toronto, in the mid-30s, humid too. They toiled for hours with an auger, digging nine holes in which to pour concrete supports for the new deck. 

By the end of the day I knew they would need a shower, and then a good dinner. The King had mentioned hot dogs for the boys, so I figured since he was BBQing, I would make something for myself to go on said BBQ. I decided on black bean burgers – something I had not tried before.

I did some initial searching online (seriously, why do I even own cookbooks anymore?) and I found a few recipes that looked interesting. The one I based this recipe on is from www.allrecipes.com. I made a few adjustments, and my version is below.

But before I give you my version, let me tell you this...the King is not vegetarian, and neither is Saro. They both ate my burgers and loved them. The King loved them so much that he decided he could be vegetarian. I said to him, “I think you could eat less meat but I don’t think you could be vegetarian”. He insisted. So then I asked, “What about pulled pork? Do you think you could give up pulled pork?” The answer was no.

Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 19 oz can black beans, drained, rinsed, and patted dry

½ red pepper (original recipe called for green pepper)

½ onion (I used Vidalia)

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp chilli powder

½ tbsp cumin (ground) (original recipe called for 1 tbsp, but I thought that might be too much cumin)

2 - 3 tsp Sambal Olek (or other hot sauce) (original recipe called for 1 tsp only)

Salt and pepper (original recipe had no salt and pepper)

Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped (original recipe had no cilantro)

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1/2 tbsp epazote (Mexican spice used in bean dishes) (original recipe didn't call for this)

Now that I have made these once, I think next time I might add green onions, and maybe some corn.

Method:

Once the beans are rinsed and patted dry, put them into a bowl and start mashing them. I tried a fork and this didn’t work well so I switched to a pastry blender. Put the bowl aside.

Using a food processor, process the red pepper, onion and garlic and add them to the bean mix once they are pulverized. I used a small hand-processor so I had to do the peppers separate from the onion and garlic.

Mix up the beans and pulverized mix. Add the spices, cilantro, salt and pepper. Add the egg and breadcrumbs. Mix it all together. 

Form into patties. I had purchased small ‘slider’ buns so I made smaller patties (I got 10). The photo below shows the size compared to my fingers.

To cook the patties: If you are using an outdoor BBQ, put the patties on tin foil that you have sprayed with cooking spray. About 8 minutes per side should do the trick. If you are cooking in the oven, put the oven at 375 degrees and use a cookie sheet with cooking spray – 8 minutes per side. I guess this could take a bit longer if the patties are larger.

 The patties did fall apart just a little. We read comments online (with regard to the source recipe) and some cooks had suggested either:

1      Adding more egg

2        Adding more breadcrumbs

3        Cooking from frozen

So the next night when I went to cook the leftovers, we employed the cooking from frozen recommendation. The King thinks this worked better, but it did take just a tad longer to cook.

I served the burgers with homemade guacamole (see previous post for my guacamole!), and salad.

Enjoy! And be sure to tell me about any variations you come up with!