Basic Black Bean Veggie Burger

I soaked and cooked another bag of black beans this week, and have been loading them in so many recipes. Last night I made something I have never tried before - black bean veggie burgers. 

These burgers are pretty basic with 3 main ingredients - black beans, egg, and oat flour. You can use any kind of flour you have or prefer. These three ingredients combined create the sticky base that holds the veggie burger together, very similar to a regular burger. The rest of the recipe is your choice of spices and flavorings. 

To be honest, when I make things, I don't really use measuring cups, I just add the things in that I think would taste good. To add flavor to my burger I used some chopped onion, chopped garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, dried cilantro flakes, red pepper flakes and the zest and juice of one lemon. Remember, you can use any flavor combinations you prefer.

Here are the ingredients listed

2 cups of cooked black beans
1 egg
1/2 cup of oat flour
1/4 onion
2 garlic clove
1 tbls of dried cilantro flakes
1 tbls of cumin
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes
1/2 lemon - zest and juice
Makes 5 burger patties

Method:
1. Put onion and garlic in a food processor or chopper to chop them down into fine pieces first. Chopping these ingredients first helps to make sure there are no big chunks in the final batter, and its such a quicker and easier way to chop these vegetables. The biggest perk is you don't have to cry over the onions.

2. Add everything else to the food processor and blend until roughly smooth. Blending the mixture to death with make a runnier texture which will make thinner burger patties.

3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, allow to heat up. Add fist-sized balls of the burger "meat" to the hot oil on the pan. Allow to fry on a medium heat for about 3 minutes or until brown on one size.

4. Flip the burgers and allow to cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes or until brown on both sides.

5. Serve as you desire. I don't usually buy burger buns or bread, so I usually have mine served plain with sides. I usually serve with salsa - it adds the juiciness and extended flavors needed to make his burger sing.