Week Two- Veggie Burgers

I have been doing a lot of cooking this past week, so much that I really haven’t gotten much craft time. But I am very excited to share this recipe for homemade veggie burgers. They get my 5 smear rating. Ok, that didn’t sound so good-- let me ‘splain: Basically, the better the recipe, the more messed up my recipe card gets with ingredients while I‘m preparing it (I‘m a messy cook), hence, the smear rating. Anyway, if you’re a fan of the store bought variety of veggie burgers, I think these are MUCH better, not very complicated to put together, healthy, and delicious (my 2 year old even eats them!). Plus, when you add it all up, they end up costing something like $.25 per burger, which makes them healthy for your wallet as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
½ green or red bell pepper, cut into wedges
½ onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 egg
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
½ cup bread crumbs *

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet.



2. 
   In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork, until thick and pasty.



3. 
   In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic, then stir into bean mash.



4. 
   In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.



5. 
   Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide into four patties.



6. 
   Place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes each side. **
   

* I used quick oats instead.
** In my oven, 13 minutes each side worked better. They might seem to stick a little at first, but once you flip them, they should firm up & be fine.


Mine seemed to need to stay in the oven longer to “set up”, but did seem a little dry- they were fine, though if served with some kind of sauce: salad dressing, ketchup, etc. Also, I felt like they could’ve used a little salt, but other than that- delicious! Bon Appetit!