Mexican Black Bean Burger

Mexican Black Bean Burger – 15-16 servings (if flat burgers)

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

I think that these are pretty yummy and my husband liked them!  Double whammy! 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup instant brown rice
• 1/2 cup water
•  2 (16 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 green bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 T chili powder
• 1 T ground cumin
• 1 T garlic salt
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs, or as needed

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet and set aside.
3. Mash black beans in a large bowl with a fork (or mortar and pestle) until thick and pasty; set aside.
4. Place the bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and chop finely. Stir the bell pepper mixture into the mashed black beans. Place the brown rice and mozzarella cheese in the food processor and process until combined. Stir into the black bean mixture.
5. Whisk together the eggs, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt, and hot sauce. Stir the egg mixture into the black bean mixture. Stir in the bread crumbs, adding additional bread crumbs as needed until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Form into patties.
6. Place patties onto the prepared baking sheet.  Bake 10-15 minutes per side.

The only change that I would make to the recipe that I used is to add a tad more hot sauce or maybe some cayenne pepper.  I would also grill these on either or outdoor gas grill or our indoor stovetop grill.  They didn’t hold together very well and flipping them was extremely difficult.  However, the end product was tasty with a slight spicy kick.  They are a really tasty homemade black bean burger, similar to what you could get a good restaurant.  I like that this recipe has a good amount of vegetables in it as well.  I might also roll these into balls and cook that way to make a nice appetizer meatball.  A lot of possibilities with this recipe.