Black Bean Burgers
Description
A.K.A. Really Awesome Black Bean Burgers from Serious Eats. I streamlined the recipe slightly…but roasting the beans and forming even burgers are both musts – such a delicious recipe! The ‘patties’ also freeze beautifully so save yourself some time and make up a big batch – enjoy!
Ingredients
1 to 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed well – when drained you should have approximately 3 cups/18 oz/512 g – this is the amount that works perfectly with this recipe
vegetable oil as needed for cooking
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 poblano pepper, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, finely minced + 1 t. sauce + 1 t. salt
3/4 c. roasted (I used salted) cashews
1/2 c. crumbled feta (or cotija)
3/4 c. panko AND 1 t. freshly ground pepper
1 egg AND 2 T. mayonnaise
burgers buns, sliced cheese, burger toppings and condiments
Instructions
Roast the beans on a large baking sheet covered in parchment at 350 for about 20 minutes until some skins start to split and a few of the beans are beginning to get crunchy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a bit. While the beans are baking, use your food processor to pulse the onion and poblano, then heat up a bit of oil in a large skillet.
Sauté the onion and poblano for a few minutes until softened, then add in the garlic, chipotle chile, sauce and salt and cook for another minute more before scraping all of the mix out into a large bowl. Use the (unwashed) food processor to quickly pulse the cashews, scrape out into the onion/pepper bowl, then add all of the roasted beans to the processor bowl, pulse briefly (some bigger bean pieces are a good thing), and scrape into the bowl as well. Stir in the feta, panko, pepper, the egg and mayo and when it’s all well combined, weigh the mix and then divide into 8 equal portions. I used my 3 inch round cookie cutter form to press each ball into an even shape on a parchment lined baking sheet, and then I froze the lot so that I could portion them out into meal-sized bags, to freeze again.
To cook – grill or sauté as you wish (squashing them a bit while cooking works great) though with grilling I’d strongly recommend using a cast iron pan as the patties may not hold up on a traditional grate. We have a fitted grilling cover that we use for smash burgers and other tasty things…because we’re those people.
Serve with really good toasted white burger buns, your favorite melty cheese, pickles and other assorted burger toppings as you wish – but Burger Sauce is not negotiable!
