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!!
These are delicious. I didn’t have cilantro or mayo but I threw all the other ingredients together. Let the mixture sit overnight in the fridge (less the breadcrumbs), added bread crumbs the next day and these burgers cooked up perfectly. The flavor is awesome. So glad to hear they will freeze well also.
I just discovered your website a month ago and I absolutely love it. You recipes are so delicious, including this one. Thank you for all you do!
I used 18 oz of cooked dry beans instead of canned and added half a jalapeño to the mix. It made 6 huge patties which was great because the brioche buns I made for them turned out giant lol. I topped with Monterey Jack and chipotle mayo along with a side of your steak fries. It tasted and looked like something from a restaurant. Absolutely fantastic, thank you.
I put the leftover patties in the fridge separated by sheets of parchment paper to cook over the next few days.
I had my eye on the old recipe to make soon so was excited to see an update!
We made these from the original recipe last week. They were delicious! It was a first veggie burger for my 4 kids and they all loved them, including my super picky 3 year old, he devoured his. We decided next time we will top with your pickled red onions. Yum
I’m surprised by the cost you list for the canned black beans. $0.96 for two cans?? I know prices vary but where I live there’s no way to get even one can for less than $1.25ish and more likely $2– what’s your secret? Are you buying them in bulk?
Hi Erin! Beth does shop often at the discount grocery stores such as Aldi, or will buy store brand over name brand to save money. We have a great post here on how we calculate recipe costs.
Target and Walmart sell 1 lb bags of dry beans for $1 in my area. I can get about 4 cans worth (9 oz) from 1 lb dry, definitely the cheapest way to go. Check out her “how to kick the can of beans” post.
This recipe looks awesome! Just a question about mayo. Do you have to add it? I’m not a fan of mayo and never buy it, so just wondering how necessary it is or if there’s a substitution. Thanks! :)
It helps bind the beans but you can omit if you don’t like it.
That look wonderful and I’d love to try, just like every other of your black beans recipe but, as a French person, we don’t have much black beans around here (and when we have, it’s import price).
What kind of beans do you suggest for a replacement? We had red beans and white beans more easily, some Italian beans too, both dried and canned. Or maybe another ingredient?
Thanks in advance!
This recipe is based on my falafel recipe, which uses canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), so that’s an option! I haven’t tried it with any other type of bean, though, so I’m not sure about other good options.
I’m from Germany and have the same problem. I usually just use kidney beans instead of black beans. I haven’t tried this recipe yet so I don’t know if that will work here. In my local asian shops they sell dry black beans, maybe that could be an option to find them at a more resonable price. Hope that helps.
Rewe has black beans in a chilli sauce. I just rinsed off the sauce with water and used those, turned out amazing.
Is this recipe made with pre soaked dry beans? Have they been cooked first or just soaked?
They are canned beans :)
Another stellar recipe Beth!! Followed it to a T, and we would definitely make it again! My boyfriend used the leftovers to make a loco moco (sp?) with leftover brown rice and eggs. Delicious!!
If you’re cooking from frozen do you thaw them first or just cook them longer per side?
You can cook them from frozen, but yes expect just a little bit longer of cooking time.
Super impressed with how good these are! I couldnt fit everything in my small food processor so i used an immersion blender, worked wonderfully! I had half a bell pepper that i needed to use so i threw it in also. My husband and i loved them.
I usually cook store bought frozen ones in the airfryer. Do you think that would work with these? I try to cut out extra fat when I can. Thanks!!
Great recipe I fix this a while back I would say this was the best black bean burger I have had Been to restaurants before and ordered a black bean burger and it was not as good as this recipe thanks ! Mistone
I made these, last night, to use some cooked beans that were in the freezer. They are so good, the layers of flavor and the sneaky heat…I’m saving the recipe, for sure
Can you use canned black beans?
Yes, you can use about two 15oz. cans.
Another amazing recipe, thank you, I added a roasted red pepper to add some more zip, laid foil on my grill and sprayed cooking spray on foil and cooked them, were so good.