New Eats: Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burger


1) Pre-heat a Foreman or barbecue grill on high heat.
2) In a blender or food processor, blend ½ of a green bell pepper and ½ of a yellow onion with 3 cloves of garlic until it's liquefied.
3) Drain a 16-oz can of black beans and, with a fork, mash them into a paste.
4) Stir the pepper/onion/garlic mixture into the beans and set aside.
5) In a small bowl, mix 1 egg, 1 tbsp. chili powder, 1 tbsp. cumin, and 1 tsp. Thai chili sauce. Stir this mixture in with the beans.
6) Add 1 cup of bread crumbs to the bean mixture and stir until the mix is sticky and holds together.
7) Form patties out of the bean mixture and place them on the grill. Cook for about 8 minutes on each side.


Thoughts:

• Thumbs up. I've had more than a few pre-made veggie burgers in my time, and these blew all of them away.
  
• Makes about 4 patties.
• It's not strictly necessary to liquefy the peppers and onion. If you've got a food processor, you can just chop them into tiny bits instead. This would probably allow you to get away with using fewer bread crumbs too.
  
• Speaking of which, use as many bread crumbs as you need to to get the consistency you want. What I used (1 cup) was twice as much as the original recipe called for.
  
• If you don't have Thai chili sauce, any kind of hot sauce or paste will do. (Thai chili sauce is awesome, though.)
  
• Original recipe courtesy of Allrecipes.com.