Best Black Bean Burgers

I admit, I've never been a big fan of veggie burgers. The store-bought kind lack much taste and have the consistency of a certain fast food burger which I despise, so it was with some trepidation that I set out to find the best recipe for one for a good friend of mine who is on the Noom plan with me.

Usually, when you find a recipe that says "The Best Ever...." in the title, it's simply not. But I confess I do use the term in some of my recipe titles, so when I happened on a recipe for The Best Black Bean Burgers I've Ever Had on sallysbakingaddiction.com, I decided to give it a try. Before I get to the actual recipe and the steps involved, here's my take:

• The burgers had a good visual appeal to them. They looked almost like real beef burgers.
• They had a good consistency to them, a good mouth feel.
• The spices were perfect, and the flavor was excellent.
• While not many less calories than a beef burger, the nutrition content is much better. On the Noom program, nearly every ingredient was either a Green food item or a Yellow food item, where beef is a Red food item.
• I used ground Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats instead of the bread crumbs to keep it gluten free.
• I used goat cheese crumbles instead of feta because I didn't have any feta. I believe it would be better with feta since it's a drier cheese than goat cheese and I'll use it next time.
• Paired with a Healthy Life Wheat Bun, a slice of Lite Jarlsburg Swiss and some lettuce and mustard and pickles, it was an excellent, filling lunch for 420 calories.

I only had one can of black beans in my pantry, so I made a half recipe. It yielded 3 very large burger patties. The recipe below is the full recipe as it appears on her website. The calorie total listed is for 1 of 6 patties from the whole recipe. You could lower the calorie total significantly if you used bread crumbs made from lite bread instead of the ground oats that I used. I was making the recipe gluten free so I could pass it along to another friend. You could also lower the calories without sacrificing any protein by using 4 egg whites instead of 2 whole eggs. I also used soy sauce instead of Worcestershire because it's what I had on hand. I selected ketchup instead of mayo because it's so much lower in calories.

If you want more detail on the background of the recipe, hop on over to sallysbakingaddiction.com. And, yes, the recipe title earned its keep.

The Best Black Bean Burgers I've Ever Had- 242 calories burger only, 420 as pictured

2 (14-ounce) cans black beans, drained, rinsed, and patted dry

1 Tbl olive oil

3/4 cup finely chopped bell pepper

1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

3 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 Tbl)

1-1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 cup bread crumbs or oat flour

1/2 cup feta cheese

2 large eggs

1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbl ketchup, mayo, or BBQ sauce

pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 325°. Spread beans evenly onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until slightly dried out.









Meanwhile, saute olive oil, chopped pepper, onion, and garlic over medium heat until peppers and onions are soft, 5-6 minutes. Gently blot some of the moisture out.

 Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl

 Add the beans and the sauteed vegetables and mash with a fork or potato masher until blended but still chunky.

Form into six patties and cook one of three ways:

1.On a grill on aluminum foil

2. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes, turn and bake 10 minutes longer.

3. Fry in a pan coated with nonstick spray on medium low for 8 minutes each side.

I fried them, as you can see here, but I think baking would yield the best result as it would make a more solid burger.

Excellent texture, and great taste. You can freeze the uncooked burgers between parchment paper and either thaw before cooking or cook directly from frozen for a few extra minutes.

If you want a Vegan version of it, leave out the cheese, replace the Worcestershire with BBQ sauce, and replace the eggs with 1/3 cup mashed sweet potato.

Enjoy!