Black Bean Burgers

I repeat myself a lot…….so you probably already know that Mondays are Meatless at our house. Meatless Monday. I LOVE alliteration. We used to also have Fishy Friday, but my tastes have changed since having Annie. I used to love just about any fish, but now just about any fish makes me want to puke. Especially shrimp. I loved shrimp before I was pregnant. Now, I think they should just stay in the ocean. I can still handle tuna and those frozen fish patties……and fish sticks. But anyone can eat fish sticks because that’s why they make ketchup. Ketchup covers a multitude of sins. I love veggie burgers. If we visit a restaurant that has Gardenburgers on the menu, you can bet that’s what I’m going to order every time. Red Robin’s Gardenburger makes me want to sing! YUMMO! So, I thought I’d show you guys how to make homemade veggie burgers. The base for this burger is black beans. There are tons of different ways to make them, so you might see other various recipes down the road.

The ingredients for these are pretty simple – things you should already have in your pantry from stockpiling. You’ll need  black beans, oats, breadcrumbs, cumin, chili powder, egg, and oil for frying. Truthfully you could use just about any bean for this recipe – great northern, chickpeas, kidney……I like black beans though and they pair very well with cumin.

Grab your colander and rinse your beans under running water. It gets rid of the gas. Yeah…..right. Do you really believe that? For this recipe we’re doing it to get rid of the bean juice. It would make the burgers too runny to hold together.

Dump your beans into the food processor and add the water. If you don’t have a food processor, you could use a blender. If you don’t have that either, you could use a potato masher. If you don’t have that, you really need to visit some yard sales.

Now, turn the processor on and let them get nice and mushed. You want it totally pureed.

Pour some oil into your skillet and turn it on medium heat. Yes, I realize that my pan is starting to lose some of its non-stick. I’m gradually hoping to get better cookware, but this one is still hanging around. I told Santa I wanted a Le Creuset Dutch oven for Christmas. I don’t have a chimney so I didn’t I made the cut.

Move your beans to a mixing bowl and add the oatmeal, breadcrumbs, egg, cumin, and chili powder. You can mix it up with your hands if you want, but I didn’t want to. Annie was feeling bad, so I didn’t know if I would have to stop at any point in time and pick her up……having egg hands wouldn’t have been good. So, the moral of the story is – it’s okay to mix this up with a spoon. Or, in my case, a spatula.

It’s going to be pretty stiff. That’s good. If it’s too thin, it won’t stick together for you to make patties. If you don’t think it’s stiff enough, just add more breadcrumbs or oatmeal until you can get them to hold together. It doesn’t look very yummy right there, does it? Don’t worry! A little ketchup will make it all better.

Your skillet should be hot now. Form the mixture into four patties and plop them into the skillet. Hear the sizzle. I love hearing sizzle…..did you know there’s a country song called “Loving You is Like Frying Bacon in the Nude?” Yeah. This isn’t that painful. Cook them about 4 minutes on each side until they’re nice and crispy.

I didn’t have a lot of fresh stuff, so we just put mustard, ketchup, mayo, pickles, and cheese on these. I can’t eat a burger without pickles. And no, bread and butter pickles do not count. Ew. Don’t you just love those Sandwich Rounds? Man, I do…….they’re way better than a bun. Unless it’s a bun with sesame seeds and then that totally wins.

Assemble your burger with whatever toppings you like and then eat it. It was delicious! Annie wasn’t a big fan though. I even tried putting ketchup on it and it was still a no-go. I think it might have been that she couldn’t really breathe out her nose. I tried eating some of her burger plain, and I have to admit it didn’t speak to me. So, you don’t really want to eat these plain. They really need the condiments and the pickles……and the cheese. We must have the cheese.  When you put it all together it’s very tasty….and meatless. Happy Meatless Monday on Tuesday!