I’m not a vegetarian, but I’m currently living with one, and as such most of our home-cooked meals don’t include meat. It’s just easier! I don’t mind eating meat less often (mostly just when we go out), and vegetarianism offers up new adventures in cooking. Essentially, “restrictions breed creativity,” or at least that’s how Mark Rosewater (head designer at Magic: the Gathering) would put it.
That’s a fancy way of saying it’s way too cold in Buffalo to go to the store, so I make do with what I have.
I researched black bean burger recipes online. The recipes I found for hotel room burgers, sweet potato black bean burgers, and simple homemade black bean burgers all got me 3/4s of the way to my final result.
I used apple cinnamon oatmeal because I didn’t have any other instant oats, which were called for in one of the recipes I read. I thought this might add an interesting flavor to the burgers, and threw in some spicy pasandra curry mix we had in a box to compliment it. I originally wasn’t going to use bread crumbs, but the consistency was too mushy and I wanted something to help hold the burgers together—the bread crumbs did the job perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised to find the flavor combination worked perfectly, and the burgers held together solidly when cooked. I would definitely recommend this recipe to a friend.
Please note that most of my ingredient amounts are approximate. I post this merely as a guideline for those who are interested, not a set of hard-and-fast rules.
Curried Black Bean Burgers
Yes, this burger does contain apple cinnamon oatmeal and spicy pasandra curry. And it tastes awesome.
Ingredients:
- 2 15-ounce cans of black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- 2 slices double fiber bread, toasted and crumbled
- 1 package instant apple cinnamon oatmeal
- ~1/4 cup of cooked Spinach
- 2 tsp pasanda curry powder
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- English muffins
- Salt and pepper
This is what the black bean burger ingredients look like. A bunch of mush, ready to be mixed into one homogeneous mush.
Method:
- Combine all ingredients and blend. A food processor would be great, but I used a hand mixer successfully. (I mashed the beans a bit with a fork in advance to assist the mixing process.)
- Heat a thin layer of oil in a large flat pan on medium-low heat.
- Spoon a half cup of black bean burger mush onto pan. Shape into burger shape.
- Cook about 8-10 minutes on each side. (These held together very well for me when cooking—possibly better than any meat burger I’ve made.)
- Use English muffins for the burger bun! I did this because it was all I had, but the flavor, shape, and texture complimented these burgers well.
This made enough for about 6-8 burgers, and we each ate 2 burgers for a meal. We put lettuce, avocado, cheese, mayo, ketchup, mustard, and tomato on these. You could probably omit the egg for a vegan version, and substitute more oats for gluten-free burgers. It’s definitely a versatile recipe. I added the bread crumbs at the end and they seemed to really help the burgers to hold their shape.
I borrowed this large flat pan from a friend, and it worked perfectly for cooking. I really love having a gas stove.
But I think we can still recognize the problems that exist at a societal level, make city and statewide efforts to change the systematic issues, and continue to make better personal choices at the same time.
