Black Bean Burgers

We are not vegan or vegetarian or paleo or any of those other things. We don't tend to eat much meat. I really, really don't like raw meat. It ruins the whole dining experience for me. I do best when I can put it in the crockpot and ignore it for the day.

These black bean burgers were delicious, and at least for me, they were the perfect solution to rectify a hamburger desire and keep it meat free. There is just something way less gross about mashed black beans and veggies than ground meat. Yuck.

On that note, this recipe came from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom. She has great recipes. I've been searching around on her site and have come up with a few more to try.

I made a few adaptations to this recipe to make it MSPI safe. Double check your ketchup, bread crumbs, and substitute Worcestershire Sauce for soy sauce  or use homemade "soy sauce". The boys ate theirs on sandwich flats and I ate mine without a bun but topped with lots of fresh veggies. I used spinach greens, a few red onion slices, tomatoes from our garden (yay!), and my mom's canned bread and butter pickles along with ketchup and mustard. One can never have too much ketchup, just so you know.

Oh and I was exhausted and having contractions every 7-8 minutes so photos were not on the do to list but ours ended up looking very much like Scattered Mom's so click on the link below to see photos of her results.

MSPI Black Bean Burgers adapted from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom
(Makes around 15 sliders)

Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup white onion, diced
• 2 15.5oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained (I realized after I got started that I only had one can of black beans so I substituted the other can for kidney beans. Turned out to be a great decision!)
• 1/2 cup sweet corn (I used frozen as I try to avoid canned)
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (I used HyVee brand Worcestershire Sauce as it is MSPI free and I was out of homemade "soy sauce".)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped (or cilantro paste)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2/3 cup bread crumbs (I used organic bread crumbs from Trader Joes as they were MSPI safe. It required over 3/4 cup to get to the stick-together point.)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and saute until onions are tender. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a large bowl mash black beans using a potato masher until desired consistency. Add in corn, ketchup, soy sauce, cumin, cilantro, salt and pepper, onion and garlic and until well combined. Fold in bread crumbs until mixture holds together. Form into patties and chill for 10-15 minutes. 
3. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook burgers until crispy, about 5-8 minutes per side depending on your stove top heat.