Seriously Awesome Black Bean & Rice Burgers

There’s a special technique to making this black bean and rice burger so flippin’ good. Black beans are oven-dried to get rid of  the excess moisture, so the texture of these burgers is not too mushy, not too dry … but just right. Mixing the black beans with rice and crushed cashews, sauteed onions, sweet peppers, cumin, and cheese, then seasoning with cumin and Red Robin Seasoning and coated in a crunchy crumbs makes for a tasty, hearty burger with a nice crunch factor.

I made these burgers back in April for the vegetarians at my daughter’s birthday party. Daughter wanted pork schnitzel (ever since her trip to Germany, she’s been fascinated with schnitzel) … but she has an interesting mix of friends and some of them are vegetarian. I love all her friends, but with the vegetarians and special dietary needs, it can get challenging to make a menu that makes everyone happy. Daughter and I discussed and decided that yes, we’d make schnitzel, but we would also have some sort of veggie burger for the vegetarians.

I went surfing around and looking at veggie burger recipes and stumbled across this interesting technique of drying out the cooked beans in the oven. I don’t recall where it came from, but the idea intrigued me so much so I decided to give it a go. I added rice because we had leftover bismati rice in the fridge that I wanted to use up (and rice and beans always go so well together), so hey, why not toss it into the burgers? As I was mixing it up, I sampled the mixture to make sure it tasted good, but I never really experienced the burgers at the time because (much to my surprise) my daughter’s friends totally gobbled them all up at the party, with many compliments.

So the next time I had leftover rice, I decided to make these veggie burgers again so I could try them for myself. Oh … my … gosh! They were totally deee-licious. I’ve never met a veggie burger that satisfied a burger craving before, but this one did. I was in burger heaven. I’m having them for lunch this week … all … week … long. Nom nom nom.

Seriously Awesome Black Bean & Rice Burgers

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• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: About 5 large patties

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Ingredients

• 1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews
• 1 – 2 mini sweet peppers, roasted and chopped
• 1 teaspoon avocado oil
• 1/2 of a large sweet onion, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
• 1 1/4 cups of cooked rice (I used basmati rice)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Robin Seasoning (or your favorite seasoned salt)
• 1 egg
• About 1/2 cup shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese (optional)
• Rice chex, finely ground in a mini food processor or handi chopper
• About 2 Tablespoons avocado oil

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and spread the beans out on the sheet in a single layer. Bake the beans to dry them slightly for about 20 minutes or until most of the beans are cracked open and a bit dried. Remove and let cool a bit.
2. Meanwhile, put the cashews in a mini food processor or spice grinder and process until they are very finely chopped.
3. Heat the teaspoon of avocado oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft and translucent. Remove from heat and let cool a bit.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, mash the beans a bit with a fork, then add the cashews, roasted peppers, onion, garlic, rice, seasonings, egg, and cheese and mix until well mixed. Form into patties. Put the ground rice chex into a flat bowl and dip each patty in the rice chex to give it a crunchy coating.
5. Pan-fry the burgers in a couple Tablespoons of avocado oil until nicely browned on the bottom. Flip and cook until browned on the other side. Enjoy just as they are with a side salad or serve on a bun with your favorite condiments (salsa, Sriracha ranch, guacamole, sauteed onions and peppers, tomato, lettuce, cilantro, or whatever your heart desires). I drizzled mine with creole remoulade – recipe here and cilantro almond salsa – recipe here with sauteed onion, peppers & fresh cilantro.

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Notes

You can prep the black bean and rice mixture ahead of time, then dip in rice chex crumbs and pan-fry at serving time.

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

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