black bean burgers

As you can tell, I've been on break from blogging my vegan creations.  We were in the process of moving for a long time, and I just made up recipes from whatever ingredients we were trying to use up.  But now we're set up in a new house, and soon I'll have time to try and blog some new recipes.  We hope to grow some of our own veggies and herbs.  We have a few existing green bell pepper plants in the yard, and we started composting, which I think is really fun.

We've been wanting tor try our own veggie or bean burgers.  I think they are pretty simple.  There's a whole cookbook about making vegan burgers.  Here's one recipe I found on the Savvy Vegetarian website:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked black beans
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 2 - 4 cloves garlic minced (depends how much you like garlic)
• 1/2 cup red onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 cup green or red pepper, chopped fine
• 1 large stalk celery, chopped fine
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dry ginger
• 1/4 tsp cayenne or chipotle pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp tahini
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce or Braggs Liquid Aminos
• 1 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (4 slices dry whole wheat bread crumbled into tiny pieces (hint: blender or food processor works great)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium low
2. Sauté garlic & onion in oil until soft
3. Add the celery & pepper, fry until softened and most of the liquid has evaporated
4. Mix in the herbs & spices and heat through
5. Mixing By Hand:
6. Puree half the beans with a pastry blender or potato masher - or a fork
7. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mash together with a pastry blender or your hands
8. Mix in tahini and/or liquid seasoning as needed for the mixture to hold together well
9. Add more breadcrumbs if the mixture seems too sticky
10. Mixing in a Food Processor:
11. Process all the ingredients except tahini and liquid seasoning until the mixture forms a loose ball. There should be recognizable bits of veggies and beans
12. Turn mixture out into a bowl. Mix in tahini and/or liquid seasoning as needed for the mixture to hold together well
13. Add more breadcrumbs if the mixture seems too sticky
14. Form the burger mixture into 10 equal sized balls, then flatten into patties 3 - 4 inches across
15. Cook on medium heat until brown, approx. 10 min per side
16. Fantastic with a little brown mustard, horseradish and sweet pickle