This Smoky Black Bean Burgers Recipe is great for batch cooking. It is a great idea to make a whole lot of burgers in advance then refrigerate for a weekend BBQ or freeze for a later date. Bean burgers can be bland but these definitely are not! Tasty tomatoes and smoky spices are a great way to add great flavours to otherwise plain, but nutritious foods like quinoa and beans. These bean burgers work great alongside grilled sweetcorn on a BBQ and other Mexican sides such as guacamole and corn tortillas.
Equipment
- Sieve
- Saucepan
- Chopping Board
- Sharp Knife
- Large Non-Stick Frying Pan
- Small Pot/Bowl
- Large Bowl
- Hand Blender or Potato Masher
- Small Bowl
- Baking Sheet
- Baking Tray
- Spatula/Flipper
Ingredients
- 2 Medium Red Onions
- 300g Cherry Tomatoes
- 4 Tbsp Water (for chia egg)
- 1.5 Tsp Dried Thyme
- 1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 Tbsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 Tbsp Chili Powder
Method
- Pre-cooking:
- To cook the black turtle beans, soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Then drain and rinse the beans well and cook for 2-3 hours in plenty of water. To know when they are cooked enough for this recipe, you should be able to easily squash them between 2 fingers. Make sure the beans are cool before creating the burgers.
- To cook the quinoa, place the dried grains in a pan with twice the depth of water to quinoa, simmer on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the grains have "uncurled" and look nice and fluffy. Make sure the quinoa is cool before creating the burgers.
- To make the burgers:
- Firstly, heat a small amount of the coconut oil in a large pan and fry finely chopped red onions on a low heat until soft and browning.
- Next, make the "chia-egg" by mixing the chia seeds with the water in a small pot or bowl and setting aside.
- In a large bowl place the cooked black beans, then using a hand blender or potato masher semi-mash the beans so you still have some full beans but mostly mushed beans.
- Once the fried onions are brown add the herbs and spices and fry for another few minutes.
- Next, roughly chop the cherry tomatoes and add them to the pan - fry for another 10 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and mixed with the onions to create a lovely mixture.
- Turn off the heat under the pan once the tomatoes are cooked and transfer the mixture to a serperate bowl to cool.
- Now, add the cooked onion tomato mixture, cooked quinoa and the chia egg to a large bowl with the semi-mushed black beans. Mix very well, it may be a bit sloppy - this is where the quinoa flour comes in. Add 4tbsp of quinoa flour to this mixture and stir in well until the mixture becomes a little more sticky.
- Next, preheat the oven to 100 degrees and prepare a baking tray with baking paper.
- Shape the burger mixture into neat solid patties with your hands and dry in a good non-stick pan on a high heat in a little more of the coconut oil. Only fry a few burger patties at a time, leaving space in the pan to move them around and flip them over - be careful, try not to break them apart.
- While you cook the rest of the burgers, place the fried ones in the oven on a lined baking tray to stay warm - this will also help to dry them out a little if they still seem a little mushy and wet, threatening to break apart.
- Once all burgers and fried and dry heated in the oven, they are ready to eat.
- Serve with in a gluten-free bun with tex-mex style guacamole, crispy lettuce leaves and spicy tomato salsa. Griddled corn on the cob with tortilla chips go well on the side. Add fresh chopped red onion and fresh chili if you want even more bite to your burger! Enjoy.
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