Black Bean Burgers

So, sometimes I like to play my own Food Network show in my head. This usually involves going into my fridge and pantry to see what's there, and trying to create (or recreate) a recipe from things I have on hand. Does anyone else do this? Just me?

This is exactly what I did recently. I had 2 hamburger buns that I didn't want to go bad. 

Without any ground beef or ground turkey on hand, what's a girl to do? 

Black bean burgers, that's what. I try to keep canned black beans on hand for easy Mexican dinners, but these cans had started to collect dust. Not a good look.

These burgers are very fast, very easy, and very delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 cans black beans (drained, but not rinsed)
• 1 cup breadcrumbs (I used Italian)
• 1 egg
• Chili powder (to taste)
• Salt and pepper
• Hot sauce (to taste)
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Hamburger buns
• Burger toppings of your choice

Directions: 

Start by draining both cans of beans and pouring them into a bowl. Mash the beans with a fork, but leave some whole. This picture shows my beans about half way through mashing.

 After your black beans are mashed, add the breadcrumbs, chili powder, salt and pepper, egg, and hot sauce. Mix it all together until the breadcrumbs are incorporated throughout. Let the mixture sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

While my bean mixture sat, I toasted the buns in a cast iron pan with melted butter until they just started to toast. This step is optional. As they toasted up, I formed the bean mixture into 4 patties. Keep in mind as you for the patties that they will remain the size you make them. They will not shrink as they heat as beef or turkey patties do.

Melt another tablespoon of butter, and an equal amount of olive oil. Once melted, put the patties into the pan to heat. After 5 minutes on one side, flip and allow them to heat for 5 minutes more on the other side. After they were heated, I topped mine with slices of cheddar cheese (I prefer the flavor of cutting cheddar from a block, but of course packaged cheese slices work just fine, too). To melt the cheese, just place a lid or foil over the pan.

(As these were heating in the pan, Spencer came home from work. He looked over my shoulder at what I was cooking and asked "chocolate chip hamburgers?")

Finally, top your buns with the patties and toppings of your choice! Mine is the one with the red onion on the left. Yum!

This meal was met with rave reviews (from both me and Spencer) and will definitely be making another appearance in our house. They took maybe 20 minutes from start to finish, and clean up was a breeze.

My one complaint, however, is that the bean mixture does not bind as well as ground beef or ground turkey, which is not really noticeable until you eat them. We would have little bits of patty drop off the bun here and there as we bit into it. 

I'll leave you with one last picture so that you can stare at it and drool a little as you add these items to your grocery list. If you make these, please send me your thoughts!

Until next time - -