Most kids grew up on frozen pizza and chicken nuggets.
I grew up on frozen black bean burgers.
My dad traveled a lot for work and, rightfully so, my mom got tired of creatively cooking for just the two of us every night. I knew the familiar conversation was about to happen when it was 6 pm and there was no dinner in sight.
“Well, I have black bean burgers in the freezer?”
I like to give her a hard time, but truthfully if you smeared some avocado on top and dipper it in BBQ sauce it wasn’t half bad. She always made sure to send me with a box every time I left for college.
Turns out you can’t stray far, because on those late dinner nights I still find myself saying, “Well, I have black bean burgers in the freezer?”
Thankfully, my childhood frozen patties have now transformed into a sweet, spicy, southwestern black bean burger good enough to be a planned dinner, not just a backup (although they do freeze beautifully!).
Black Bean Burgers
Yield: 8 burgers
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked
- ¾ cup old fashioned oats
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp cayenne (or more for extra spice)
- ½ tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork and microwave for 5-6 minutes or until completely soft. Once sweet potatoes are cool enough to touch, remove the skin and add to a medium bowl.
- Add the oats to a small food processor and grind until oats start to break up.
- In the bowl with the sweet potatoes, add all the remaining ingredients and use a potato masher to mix everything well.
- Shape a ½ cup of the mixture into a patty and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat until the mixture is gone.
- Bake burgers for 30-35 minutes, flipping halfway.
Nutrition Information
- 173 calories
- 30 g carbohydrates
- 7 g protein
- 3 g fat