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These homemade black bean burgers are so full of flavour and the perfect way to add a plant-based meal to your weekly menu.

Homemade black bean burgers are a great way to get your family to eat more beans. Black beans are full of fiber and protein and help create a well-balanced meal.

Making them yourself allows you to control the flavours to make sure your whole family will love them.

Let your kids pick their own toppings to make them more interested in giving these burgers a try. You may just need to work on the texture to figure out what they like best.

See our tips box below for some suggestions on how to do that.

Preparing Homemade Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients

Black beans: A pulse, these beans are full of protein and fibre and are a great way to facilitate a plant-based diet. They are small bean that is dark in colour and are about ½ inch long. Black beans are most commonly used in Latin American cuisines.

Red onion: Red Onion: Red onions have a purply reddish colour and are an important addition to this recipe. It has a nice mild flavour both in its raw form and cooked.

Red bell pepper: The sweetness of red bell pepper is unbeatable in this recipe. Red peppers are the more mature version of the more bitter and earthy green pepper. Though they are technically a fruit, bell peppers are typically used as a vegetable in cooking.

Egg: Eggs are laid by many different animals but chicken eggs are what we use in this recipe. Eggs provide protein, fat and many other nutrients and therefore are a healthy part of our diet. Here they are used as a binder.

Bread crumbs: Bread crumbs are simply ground-up dried bread. I actually make my own. I save the ends of bread loaves and let them dry out. Then I throw them in the blender and voila, bread crumbs.

Flour: I use all-purpose flour. It is a wheat flour and the most commonly used flour for baking. It is very versatile and makes anything from pizza dough to cookies and cakes. You can use whole wheat flour for this recipe to add a little bit

more fibre if you’d like.

Olive oil: I use olive oil for this recipe because of its mild flavour. Olive oil is the fat extracted from olives. The least processed is extra virgin olive oil, which I use in this recipe.

Herbs and Spices

Dried coriander: Ground coriander in this recipe is referring to the dried seed of the plant that has been ground to a powder.

Paprika: I use sweet paprika and smoked paprika for this recipe. The former is not sweet in the sugary sense, but compared to its spicy and smoked siblings it is definitely the sweetest of them all. Smoked paprika is just as it sounds, smoked before it is dried and ground. It has a very deep and bold flavour so be careful not to overdo it if you choose to deviate from the recipe.

Garlic powder: Garlic powder is dehydrated garlic ground to a powder. It’s sweeter than raw garlic so it just adds a hint of garlic flavour without the sharpness.

Oregano: Oregano is a plant from the mint family. It’s used as s herb and has a very potent flavour. Dried oregano is the leaves of the fresh plant that has been air-dried.

How to Make Homemade Black Bean Burgers

Start by opening a can of black beans. Drain and rinse the beans under cold water using a strainer. Add a third of the can to a food processor or blender. Set the other half aside.

TIP: If you are using a blender, you only want a portion of the beans blended with the spices and veggies so that the burgers don’t turn out too mushy. This is where your preference for consistency will guide how much of the beans you blend and how much you don’t. I wouldn’t blend more than half. You can also choose to leave the peppers and onions out of the blender if you prefer those in chucks.

Next prep the veggies. Dice the onion and red bell pepper into small pieces and add them to the blender.

Now add all the spices, the egg and the bread crumbs to the beans and pulse until all the ingredients are mixed.

If you are using a food processor, process until the ingredients are mixed but still chunky. You don’t want the burgers to be too mushy. See our tip box above.

Add the remaining beans to the blender and stir using a spatula. You may choose to move the mixture and the whole beans to a medium bowl at this point to make the stirring easier.

Put the flour in a small bowl. You will use it to coat the burgers.

Divide the black bean mixture into four equal parts and make patties out of each quarter. Dredge each patty in the flour on both sides and set it aside.

Heat up the oil in a large skillet and once hot add the burgers to the pan. Make sure to turn the heat down to medium to prevent burning.

Cooking Homemade Black Bean Burgers

Pan-fried

Fry the black bean burgers for 5 minutes on each side.

Indoor Grill

You can also use an indoor grill to cook up these burgers.

Heat up the grill on high. Once hot, spray each side of the grill with some cooking spray or brush with oil. Cook the burgers for 6-7 minutes on each side. The length of time will depend on the heat settings of your grill.

Substitutions

Bell pepper: The red bell pepper adds a little extra sweetness to the black bean burgers. With that said, you can use any kind of pepper (yellow, orange, cubanelle). You can even include jalapenos if you like a little spice. You can also skip the peppers altogether if you don’t have any.

Red onion: Yellow onions will work well in this recipe as well. If you want to make sure they add enough sweetness, sauté them on a pan before adding them to the burger mix.

How to Make Homemade Black Bean Burgers Vegan

This recipe is not vegan but you can easily make it so by not using eggs. Instead of eggs, use a flax egg. Mix one tablespoon of ground flax seed with 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Stir and set aside for a few minutes to let the flax seeds absorb the liquid. If you find it too sticky add another tablespoon of water, mix again and let sit for another couple of minutes. If you don’t have flax seeds use ground chia seeds instead.

Serving Black Bean Burgers

I love these burgers with our chipotle mayo or garlic aioli. As for the rest of the toppings, it’s really up to each individual. Try it with jalapenos and avocado, or stick to traditional burger toppings like tomato, pickle, mustard and ketchup.

There is no wrong way to dress these homemade black bean burgers.

My favourite sides for these burgers are sweet potato fries or regular fries, as well as butter lettuce salad or spinach salad. Sometimes it’s just one side, sometimes it’s both. It really depends on my mood and hunger level.

Storing Homemade Black Bean Burgers

There are a couple of ways to store these burgers. If you want to store them cooked, then follow the cooking instructions above. Let the burgers cool fully then add to an air-tight container and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

If you want to store them uncooked, shape the patties and do not coat them in flour. Lay the burger patties flat on a lined cookie sheet without touching. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer and freeze for 1-2 hours. Once fully frozen, transfer the patties to an air-tight freezer-safe container.

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions. And if you like this recipe be sure to leave us a five-star rating below.

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Homemade Black Bean Burgers