I'm actually in Seattle when you're reading this and will be there until Saturday, but I have a few posts scheduled to go up the next few days while I'm gone so keep checking the blog! I thought this would be an appropriate post for today because I have a feeling Ryan will be pulling one of these out of the freezer for dinner :)
I made these on a whim once when I had a can of black beans lying around and found that Ryan absolutely loved them. The best part about these is that you make them ahead of time and freeze them, so they're a great dinner to pull out when we don't feel like cooking. I've actually never made the patties and immediately cooked them, so I don't know if they'd turn out any differently that way.
This was the first time I made these and used a food processor to do all of my chopping and mashing of the beans. It made the process much easier, but these can certainly be made by mashing the beans with a fork (or your hands, as I used to do). The patties I made this time were a little smoother and more "burger-like" thanks to the food processor.
The recipe below made 10 burgers, but this can easily be halved. However, like I said, it's great to freeze a bunch and eat later! We like to eat these on buns with salsa. We've also crumbled them up and added them to a southwestern-type salad.
Ingredients:
-1 green pepper, chopped
-1/2 large onion, chopped
-2 cans black beans, drained
-5 cloves garlic, chopped
-1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
-1 1/2 tablespoons cumin
-approximately 3 squirts of hot sauce
-1 cup bread crumbs
Directions:
1. Mix green pepper, onion, garlic, spices, hot sauce and bread crumbs in a large bowl.
2. Using a food processor or your hands, mush and mash the black beans until paste-like.
3. Add black beans to the bowl with everything else and mix well.
4. Using your hands, form patties about the size of your palm.
5. If cooking immediately, place patties on a skillet over medium heat and cook for 3-5 minutes a side, until heated through.
6. If freezing, wrap each patty individually in wax paper and place all patties inside of a freezer bag or tupperware. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and unwrap. Place patties on a plate and defrost in microwave. Cook on a skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until heated through.
bean mixture...mmm?!
"burger" patty
individually wrapped for the freezer
