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!
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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
- Food Processor
- Nonstick Fry Pans
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!!
This recipe looks great! I was wondering if it’d work to replace black beans with a different type of bean? I only have pinto on-hand.
Thanks!
Kristi
It probably would work with other types of beans, but the flavor will be different of course. :)
Ok, thank you! I’ve been frequenting your site a lot lately, and it has been really helpful!
Best,
Kristi
How much dried parsley would I use? I don’t have fresh parsley on hand. Thanks! Looking forward to making these!
You can try a 1/2 Tbsp or so, just keep in mind that dried parsley tastes a lot different than fresh parsley.
Just a heads up, Worcestershire Sauce is not considered vegetarian. It typically contains Anchovy paste.
I’m not a vegetarian, but I figured people would appreciate knowing that and subbing it for another sauce.
There is such a thing as vegan Worcestershire sauce. I use Annie’s brand.
I need to bring vegetarian burgers to a cookout. Do you think these will grill well?
LOVE your recipes!
They can be kind of delicate before cooking, so I’m not sure how well they’ll do on the open grates of a grill.
simply delicious! I looove your budget friendly recipes
We’ve made this recipe twice now and they are amazing! We don’t use them for hamburgers though… two words: loco moco. One patty, a fried egg and some rice, topped with a bit of gravy/teriyaki. It is melt-in-your-mouth good.
Just made these (but put in the fridge to cook in a little bit). The batter smelled amazing!! I had to use cornmeal because I forgot I needed the bread crumbs and used them all up last night. But it made the patties so smooth and soft so maybe it was better than the plain panko would’ve been. Serving them with the chili roasted potatoes. Can’t wait to eat!
And they were amazing!!!! Seriously. I think they’re better than 99% of the meat burgers I’ve had.
Love this one! I’ve been eating it all week :) Very easy, and had no idea that making your own black beans was so cheap and simple. I’m curious Beth, for this recipe do you just make the black beans per bag instruction or do you make them such as in your slow cooker recipe?
I’ve been trying to eat less meat lately and be healthier in general, recipes like these and your tofu ones sure do help a lot!
I used to make the beans in my slow cooker (I like to do 8 hours on low), but I recently got an Instant Pot (pressure cooker) and that’s much faster. :)
how much time in IP for black beans and do I need to soak them a night before?
I’m not sure. I’d suggest checking the booklets that come with the IP. I haven’t done a lot of experimenting with beans in the IP yet.
I did it yesterday it took 40 minutes for not soaked black beans to come perfectly cooked in Instant pot
Thanks
These were FANTASTIC. Made a half recipe and accidentally added the full amount of sriracha so they were a little on the spicier side but still great. Will definitely make again…or just make 50 at one time and freeze for future use.
I made these last night. I followed the recipe, but added slightly more cumin (generous tsp instead of flat tsp) and used horseradish on the bun. I cooked the burgers in my little Foreman grill for about 5 minutes.
Really, really good! I can see these becoming a staple weeknight meal.
love these burgers! i substitute oats instead of bread crumbs, and i have found if i leave them to sit for a few minutes after i’ve mixed it all up, they form patties a bit better. my husband (meat and potatoes man) loves these!
Until last night, the last time that I made these were about 2 years ago. My husband has been begging me to make these again ever since so I whipped these together last night and I have to say – I totally forgot how amazing these are! I am seriously so excited for leftovers tonight. I am also going to make a batch to freeze so we will ALWAYS have them on hand. Thank you for the great recipes.
PS – Since I last made them, I was diagnosed with celiac disease and I used crunched up GF rice cereal in place of the bread crumbs and they came out just fine!
Hi Beth! I am planning our meal plan for next week and thought of having these one night. My 2 year old son can’t have gluten and so I was wondering if I used slices of his gluten free bread and put them in a food processor until I have a cup of crumbs if that would work just as well. Gluten free bread is a bit different than regular bread in texture and ingredients. I think it may be alright. I’d use gluten free quick oatmeal if I had some. Tonight we are having your taco pizza (his on gluten free crust) and I can’t wait!!! We eat meat but trying to eat less and I love that you have meatless recipes that aren’t all beans, all pasta, or other ingredients like tofu that aren’t found in every grocery store (and that we would never eat anyways). Thanks so much!
I think the gluten free bread should work here because it’s mainly there to soak up water. I’d try to dry out that bread before processing it, though, so it will soak up as much as possible.
I can’t even remember if I’ve commented on this recipe before, but these are BY FAR the best black bean burgers I’ve ever had. I made them about 2-3 months ago, wrapped and froze the leftovers and quite happily remembered that I had a few left over and just had one for lunch. YUM. Not only are they DELICIOUS but they freeze beautifully, and don’t lose their texture or flavor when defrosted. I’d give this recipe 10 stars if I could.
Tried this last night, also added fresh mushrooms to it to help with the texture. Think I might add a few more next time, but the flavour was really good! Even my meat luvin’ hubby gave it a thumbs up :)