Black bean burgers

June 3, 2019 | Food | 8 Comments »

It’s been a while since I took advantage of the lifestyle portion of my blog. While I mainly focus on beauty, I labeled my blog as more of a lifestyle type leaving me the option to explore other topics. I have quite a few hobbies. I wouldn’t say I get sick of either, but I do tend to jump around a lot and favor one over the other for a while. Lately I’ve been less into makeup and more into home organization and cooking.

So I figured I’d share one of my favorite vegetarian recipes with you all today. For those of you who don’t know, I was vegetarian turned vegan for about 7+ years. I stopped eating plant based shortly after moving here due to certain food allergies. Soy being one of them. I do still mainly eat plant based, but not exclusively. It’s just too much with having to worry about allergens all the time. Seriously, why is soy in everything? Very small quantities don’t seem to bother me. Like if it’s in bread and very low on the ingredient list. However, soy milk and tempeh are a no go these days. And that makes me sad because I relied on both.

Since most veggie burgers contain soy or other allergens I’m supposed to stay away from, I usually end up making my own. Which is no big deal. They are super easy to whip up. My absolute favorite is this Mediterranean Black Bean Burger. The original recipe is from another former vegan who ran the blog The Voracious Vegan. I remember the controversy that followed when she publicly announced that she was no longer vegan. I can’t speak for her, but I can say for me it was very challenging when my health issues got in the way. I hope she’s doing much better these days. Thankfully I screen capped her recipe years ago. I’ve had it saved in my recipe file ever since. It’s a staple around here. I make them for me and my son at least once a month. We enjoy them more often during the Summer months.

I mostly follow the original recipe as is. I did make a few changes. I use all-purpose flour in place of chickpea flour. I use sun dried tomato pesto in place of the sun dried tomatoes marinated in oil. I just feel like the pesto is easier and adds more flavor. And I cook my quinoa in non-chicken broth because it’s so much tastier than using just water. My mixture is usually pretty wet. She suggested refrigerating the mixture for about 30 minutes before forming patties. I usually refrigerate my mixture for about 15 minutes. I’m always afraid the mixture will dry out too much. To form the patties I use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop. I then scoop the mixture onto a lightly oiled skillet and gently press down forming a nice round patty. You can follow this link to the full recipe.

After cooking the burgers I allow them to come to room temperature. Then I stack them in an air-tight container with parchment paper squares separating the burgers. Whenever I need a quick, healthy lunch or dinner I just pull one out of the freezer and heat it up on the skillet. I always try to keep a batch of these in the freezer. It makes life so much easier.

If you give these a try, please let me know. I’d love to know what you think.

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