Favorite Black Bean Burgers

These are my favorite black bean burgers. They have such a wonderful texture to them due to the Vital Wheat Gluten. This recipe comes from the cookbook, Veganomicon. Once you try this recipe, you will be making these again and again. This burger is great topped with guacamole, avocado, salsa or just plain old ketchup.

Makes 6 Burgers.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked or 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (if you do not have this, you may use whole wheat flour in a pinch…but this really does make the texture awesome!)
  • 1/2 cup plain whole wheat bread crumbs
  • 1 tsp chile powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 Tbl Tomato paste or ketchup (I used paste)
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 small onion
  • About 2 Tbl Olive Oil
  • Whole Wheat Buns (I used Arnold Sandwich thins…very good!)

Directions

  • Mash the beans with a fork in a mixing bowl. You do not want to puree them, mash them so that there are mostly no whole beans left but some half beans.
  • Add the wheat gluten, bread crumbs, chile powder, cumin, water, tomato paste, cilantro, minced garlic, & chopped onion.
  • Mix everything together with a fork, and then proceed to knead the mixture with your hands. Continue until the mixture is firm and uniformly mixed (about a minute).
  • Pre-heat pan over medium heat or an outdoor grill.
  • Divide the mixture into 6 uniform balls. Use your palm to press each ball down to form a patty that is about 1 1/2 inch thick.
  • If using a pan, pour a thin layer of olive oil into the pan. Cook patties about 5 minutes on each side, gently but firmly pressing down on them with a spatula.