Super flavorful Homemade Black Bean Burgers are as easy as combining black beans together with a slew of flavorful ingredients, like garlic, red onion, cumin, cilantro, and sriracha. A little egg and breadcrumbs help hold the patty together, and you’ve got a super hearty, flavorful, and freezer-friendly homemade black bean burger. No more $8 restaurant veggie burgers for me!
How Many Burgers Does This Recipe Make?
This recipe makes six decent-sized black bean burgers. And don’t worry, if you can’t eat all six within a few days, they’re freezer friendly! Note: The recipe and price breakdown below are for the burger only. Everyone likes something different on their burger, so I decided not to include buns and toppings in the recipe or price breakdown.
Are They Freezer-Friendly?
Since I cook for just myself, I cooked two of my patties and froze the rest. Just wrap the raw patties in plastic wrap and then place them in a zip top freezer bag. To cook later, thaw the patty for 30 seconds in the microwave then finish cooking in a skillet as described in the recipe below.
What Toppings are Good on a Black Bean Burger?
I went with traditional mustard, tomato, lettuce, and red onion, but you could really have a lot of fun with the toppings. You could do a southwest spin and add some chipotle mayo, cheddar cheese, and jalapeños. Or how about a BBQ version with BBQ sauce and pepper jack cheese? A few avocado slices with any of the above themes would also be really nice. And you definitely need to try some Comeback Sauce on there!
Are These Black Bean Burgers Spicy?
Despite having sriracha as one of the ingredients, I don’t find these black bean burgers to be spicy at all. The sriracha just adds another subtle layer of flavor. If you want your black bean burgers to be spicy, simply double the sriracha, or add a jalapeño to the food processor when you’re processing your ingredients together.
Do I Have to Use a Food Processor?
You can make these black bean burgers without a food processor, but it’s a whole lot easier with one. :) To make the black bean burgers without a food processor, just finely mince the red onion, garlic, and sriracha by hand. Mash the black beans by hand (either with a fork or with a potato masher), then stir everything together by hand.
Can I Bake Them?
I don’t suggest baking the black bean burgers because you won’t get the nice browning on the outside of the burger, which provides extra flavor and texture to the burger.
Can I Skip the Egg?
I tried to make these black bean burgers without the egg, but unfortunately, they just don’t hold together in the skillet (they turn into something more like refried beans). You may be able to do something like a flaxseed egg replacer, but I haven’t tested this.
P.S. This black bean burger recipe is basically a variation on my Homemade Falafel recipe, which is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.
Homemade Black Bean Burgers
Servings 6Ingredients
- 2 15oz. cans black beans ($0.96)
- 1/4 red onion ($0.11)
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
- 1/4 bunch fresh cilantro* ($0.20)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha ($0.11)
- 1 Tbsp mayonnaise ($0.09)
- 1 tsp ground cumin ($0.10)
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.09)
- 1/4 tsp pepper ($0.03)
- 1 large egg ($0.23)
- 1 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.26)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
Instructions
- Rinse and drain the canned black beans. Add the black beans to a food processor along with the red onion, garlic, cilantro, sriracha, mayonnaise, cumin, soy sauce, and pepper. Pulse the ingredients until they are evenly mixed, but still slightly chunky.
- Transfer the black bean mixture to a bowl and add one large egg and 1 cup breadcrumbs. Stir the ingredients together until they're evenly combined. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes.
- Divide the black bean mixture into six equal portions, then shape each portion into a patty, about 3.5 inches in diameter, ½-inch thick.
- To cook the black bean burgers, heat 1Tbsp cooking oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add a few of the black bean burgers and cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, or until they are well browned and heated through. Repeat with more oil and the rest of the patties until they're all cooked.
- Place each patty in a bun, add your favorite toppings, and enjoy!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Updates to the old recipe: I eliminated the Worcestershire sauce from the original recipe so this recipe would actually be vegetarian (because if you’re making a black bean burger, I’m guessing you want it to be vegetarian!). I also swapped canned beans for home-cooked black beans, because I figure most people will have canned on hand. I used cilantro in place of parsley because that’s what I had on hand, but you can use whichever one you prefer! If you’d like a copy of the old recipe, simply email us at support@budgetbytes.com and we can send you a pdf.
How to Make Black Bean Burgers – Step By Step Photos
Rinse and drain two 15oz. cans of black beans. Add them to a food processor along with ¼ of a red onion, 1 clove of garlic, ¼ bunch of cilantro (about ½ cup), 1 Tbsp sriracha, 1 Tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tsp cumin, 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce, and ¼ tsp pepper.
Pulse the ingredients together until they’re mostly mixed. I like to leave it just a little chunky, but fairly even.
Add the black bean mixture to a large bowl along with one egg and 1 cup of breadcrumbs.
Combine the black bean mixture with the breadcrumbs and eggs. I like to let this mixture sit for about five minutes to let the breadcrumbs absorb some of the moisture.
Divide the mixture into six equal portions and shape them into patties (about ½ cup of mixture each, 3.5″ diameter, ½” thick).
Add a ½ Tbsp cooking oil to a skillet and heat over medium. When the oil is hot, add a couple of patties and cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, or until they are nicely browned and heated through. Repeat with more oil and patties until the desired number are cooked (or freeze the rest, see the info above the recipe for instructions on how to freeze).
Top your black bean burger with your favorite toppings and enjoy!!
Super late to the party on this recipe, but thought I’d throw my two cents in. I didn’t have buns so I made a quick sauce out of yogurt, parsley, garlic, and olive oil and put a little of that on top of a burger and a fried egg on top of that! It made an awesome breakfast, and there’s a good chance I will also have it for dinner! :)
I made these wrong since the egg and breadcrumbs are in the middle of the list of ingredients that go into the FP, meaning I added the bread crumbs too early along with the user error of not putting the ingredients in the right order so it was very dry and I couldn’t get the onions chopped in. Finally got that all figured out, but had added some water, more mayo/sriracha before I realized my own error. Once the egg was added, it was WAY too wet. I am now attempting to make a “meatloaf” out of this by sticking it in a greased loaf pan with some salsa on top and baking at 350 for 45 min. So suggestion…please put the bread crumbs/egg at the bottom so they get added when they should! Thanks!
Fixing now – Thanks for the suggestion!
LOVE these burgers. But I hate mayonnaise so I substituted mayo for A1 Steak Sauce. I have also used Panko crumbs instead of bread crumbs. They’re SO good! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Just wanted to pop in and tell you that I made these this weekend. They turned out PERFECT. I have never ate a “veggie” burger before, so I was a little freaked out about going through the trouble of preparing them and have them taste like card board. Luck me, they didn’t. I followed your recipe to the “t” except for I added a little more garlic, and half the Siracha. After I boiled the beans I let them sit in the fridge for a couple of days before I got to them. I dried them all out on a paper towel before putting them in the food processor as well. The patty’s went together with NO problem. They held up well, and I had no tearing or anything during the “flip”. These are MONSTER sized patties if you make 6 of them from the above recipe. Anyway. Just wanted to say Thank You for all the time and effort you put into these recipes. We have been using a lot of them weekly to get our grocery cost down, but eating healthy. I also wanted to add you do a great job explaining the processes and not just throwing up a recipe. That helps the folks like me that are learning how to cook. (I started last fall), to help out my wife. So those little things like “kick the can” help out the new folks like me.
I know this may sound like a dumb question, but I need to know. Did you cook the black beans first for these burgers or are they just raw? I was thinking about picking up a bag of them instead of the canned and I wanted to make the Quessidila’s as well, but if I am getting the raw ones I have to “kick the can of beans”.
You’ll definitely need to “kick the can” before both recipes :) The beans in both recipes are cooked. Enjoy!
Thank you!
These are soooo beyond good its nuts! I usually double the worch sauce, don’t add siracha (just don’t have it) and skip the parsley. Add tomato and mustard (husband likes thin slice of red onion too) and on bread. Recently did on sourdough and it was stellar!
You pan seared, will this work well on the grill? It is grilling season after all!
If I remember correctly, these held together pretty well, so they should be okay on the grill :)
They were so delicious, but fell apart very quickly! Maybe another binder for a griller? Regardless they were tasty, my grill party was a success!
Hmm, I wonder if another egg and more bread crumbs would help.
I blended up some dried oats! Healthy and a great binding agent!
Awesome, thanks Kristy! I’m so glad to know that they work just as well without egg! …now I need to go make some because it’s been WAY too long ;D
Hi Beth – I can’t believe I’ve never commented on this recipe before. I’ve been making these burgers for over a year, and my freezer is NEVER without them. Seriously, I am a black bean burger connosieur, and these are the best! A couple small changes I’ve made over time: 1) I reserve 1/2 can of beans to add after processing everything. 2) I add 1T of horseradish mustard. YUM! 3) I’ve never needed the egg, ever, so non-vegans can skip it and save some calories, if they’re into that sort of thing. I’ve blogged you here: http://www.veganiseasy.com/?p=264, and of course you’re on my favorite recipe sources list. Thanks for a family favorite!
super tasty!
I made a modified version.. subbed cilantro and added sweet corn and green onion– similar to the sweet potato cakes. I sauteed the chopped onions ahead of time to bring out their flavor. I don’t have a food processor, so I just mashed the beans with my hands and that, along with the corn, left the burgers with a nice texture. (made it less pasty)
Served over a bed of brown rice with roasted tomatoes and a spoonful of plain greek yogurt.
thanks so much for your recipes. I tend to stray (I was never good at following directions), but they are a fabulous starting point and without them I wouldn’t have made nearly as many lovely dishes.
Ashlee – Panko would probably work very nicely. In a pinch the Italian breadcrumbs would probably even work because the other flavors are so strong that you might not even notice the Italian seasoning in the bread crumbs.
I started getting stuff out to make these and discovered I only have Italian seasoned or panko breadcrumbs. Will either of those work?
Ashlee – That is one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard! Good thinking! Just remember, chipotle peppers are potent, so go light so it doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the flavors.
Do you think I could use chipotle sauce instead of sriracha? I had a chipotle black bean burger at a restaurant once, and I’ve been craving one! Unfortunately, the restaurant is 1,000 miles away from here. :(
I made them tonight.My son who is a difficult eater, choice them for tonight. He find himself very sturdy, because dad don’t want to eat beans. We really love them. I mix it untill there are no chunks anymore.
don’t know if this works, but here is a picture of it
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=350576555017973&set=a.284017561673873.65857.100001968939843&type=1&theater