Homemade 12 Bean Burgers and Better Black Bean & Mushroom Burgers

After my deliciously successful first attempt at homemade black bean burgers based off a whole foods recipe, I decided to put homemade bean burgers into my regular rotation of easy meals.

Selling points:

• Super quick to make!
• Bean Burgers are made with common and easily stocked ingredients, like canned or dried beans, bread, eggs, and spices
• You can make a large batch of burgers for a couple dollars!  Take that, fast food!
• You can freeze extra burger patties for a quick meal
• They taste great on a bed of fresh greens or mixed into a salad.  You can also crumble one up and use it as taco ‘meat’ in a pinch!

Homemade Bread Crumbs:

Toast several pieces of bread (your choice), optionally topped with some herbs or seasoning, until crisp and dry.  I did this by baking at 300 degrees for about 14 minutes.  Crumble cooled toast into fine pieces or use a food processor.

Part 1: 12 Bean Party Burgers:

For a party I was having, I decided to try a 12-bean burger.  I had a bag of mixed beans, including navy, great northern, kidney, pinto, chick pea, black beans, and more.

I followed the same basic recipe as before except that I made my own bread crumbs.

Ingredients

• 1 16 oz bag of mixed beans, prepared (I cooked mine in a pressure cooker with 6-8 cups of water at pressure for 15-20 minutes, then drained.  You can also soak or quick cook them on the stove, but it will take longer than 30 minutes overall)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c diced leek
• 2-3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs  (you can do these homemade by toasting and food processing your bread)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• a handful of fresh chopped basil
• 1 jalepeno, diced, and/or hot sauce to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Serve on greens/in a salad, on a roll, or however you prefer!

12 bean burger mix

Instructions

Prepare your beans if they were dried (pressure cooker/soaking/etc.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Partially mash beans with a fork in a large bowl.
Separately saute garlic, leek, and jalapeno until leek is tender, in a little oil.
Toast bread for 10 minutes or so in the oven with various herb/garlic seasonings to make bread crumbs.  Crumble.
Add eggs, bread crumbs, oregano, basil, garlic/leek/jalapeno, salt, and pepper to the bowl.
Mix well to combine then shape into approximately 30 sliders, or 8-10 larger bean burgers.
Lightly oil the bottom of a baking pan
Arrange patties and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through, depending on size
Serve as desired.

12 bean burger sliders baking

12 bean burger sliders

Party burgers! Served with greens, cherry tomatoes, baguette slices, and salsa!

 

Part 2: Better Black Bean & Mushroom Burgers

This is the remix.

I highly recommend starting with this recipe, though it’s changes were minor (homemade bread crumbs, fresh herbs, sauteed mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce), they made a significant difference in the burgers.  These were amazing!

Ingredients

• 1 16 oz bag of black beans, prepared (I cooked mine in a pressure cooker with 6-8 cups of water at pressure for 15-20 minutes, then drained.  You can also soak or quick cook them on the stove, but it will take longer than 30 minutes overall)  You can also use 2-3 15 oz cans of low sodium black beans.
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c diced leek
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs  (you can do these homemade by toasting and food processing your bread)
• a handful of fresh oregano
  

  fresh picked oregano

• a handful of fresh chopped basil
• a handful of fresh chopped parsley
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 8-10 button mushrooms, diced (as many as you like, really.. you can play with the ratio of beans to mushrooms here!)
• hot sauce to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

black bean burger ingredients: Egg, bread crumbs, leek, mushrooms, garlic, black beans

Instructions

Prepare your beans if they were dried (pressure cooker/soaking/etc.)

Drained rinsed black beans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Partially mash beans with a fork in a large bowl.
Separately saute garlic, leek, and mushrooms in a little oil.

Toast bread for 10 minutes or so in the oven with various herb/garlic seasonings to make bread crumbs.  Crumble.
Add eggs, bread crumbs, oregano, basil, garlic/leek/mushrooms, salt, and pepper to the bowl.
Mix well to combine then shape into approximately 10 larger bean burgers.

black bean burger patties

Lightly oil the bottom of a baking pan
Arrange patties and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through, depending on size.

black bean burger patties cooking

Serve as desired.

black bean burger on toast with avocado and cherry tomatoes