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!!
Made these for a friend of mine using vegan egg replacer (liquid) and vegan mayo. They came out great and were absolutely delicious! Next time I will make these just for myself!
To vary the texture, can you add some whole beans, corn, jalapenos, etc before shaping the patties
These are my favorite black bean burgers ever. Thank you!
These patties were so easy to make, the texture and flavors were great, and as others noted they held up well in the pan. Plus – they heat up beautifully the next day! This will be our new go-to recipe for black bean burgers. Thank you!
Loved these! This is the first black bean burger recipe I’ve made that hasn’t fallen apart in the pan. Great flavor and texture! Thank you for the recipe!
My husband who loves eating meat thought that these were yummy and said that he would eat them again! I made a curry ketchup to go on the burger (since my husband doesn’t like mustard or mayo) and it was fantastic together.
I would rate this recipe as just “ok.” The burgers tasted ok to me, but my picky kids and husband didn’t like them. They cooked-up fine, but then when I bit into it, the burger just squished right out of the bun. Maybe I needed more egg??? The mixture felt a little dry when I was mixing it up, but I always follow recipes exactly the first time I make them so I didn’t add anything else. I might attempt this again when my kids aren’t home and just make them for myself.
It was squishy because there is too much water content. Try putting the beans in the oven and frying up the onions to get the water out. Kenji Lopez alt also has a great version of this recipe.
I have tried Kenji’s recipe and both my meat eating boys absolutely loved it. I love the leftovers with sautéed mixed greens and a fried egg. I’m gravitating to this recipe because Kenji’s is a bit expensive and has more steps. Not that I’m afraid of cooking (love it and am quite good at it), but raw cashews are pricey, and he just had a lot of ingredients and steps. I would love to have simpler one with just as much flavor, especially in these days of extreme inflation!
We made these last night and it was our first attempt at making black bean burgers. They were very tasty!
Made a covid version of these with garlic powder sub, onion powder sub, no cilantro, and coarsely pulsed oats in place of bread crumbs. My carnivore husband mumbled in between large bites ‘I could eat these all the time!’
Thanks for another great recipe!
High-quality black bean burger recipe. My partner and daughter are both vegetarian, and I’ve cycled through several recipes over the years, which I’ve found tasteless and or fall apart in the cooking process. The first night we ate them with classic fixings, and they were so good we ate them on night 2. This time we added pepper jack cheese, sauteed peppers and onions, and trader joes guac, with trader joes sweet potato fries. Definitely a game-changer, and compete with our local burger chain’s black bean burger.
Would using the home-cooked beans (like the original recipe used) change the taste of the burger? Tempted to use home-cooked but wondering if it will make a noticeable difference. These look great!
I don’t find that home cooked vs. canned changes the flavor dramatically. :)
Can anyone advise if gluten free breadcrumbs will work in this recipe? Thanks!
I used GF breadcrumbs and the burgers came out tasting fine. One did fall apart in the pan though. I think next time I might try using two eggs and see if that helps keep them together. Also, I think I made the patties too big around.
Made these for dinner tonight. All I can say is I sure can’t wait until lunch tomorrow so I can have them again! Topped mine with some of your Comeback Sauce… yum, yum, yum!
I love black bean burgers and can hardly wait to try this. For a change, I actually have all the ingredients except the cilantro (which I’m not fond of anyway) so will give this a try this week. Also love falafel so will have to check out your recipe for that, too.
The falafel recipe is amazing! My family uses it regularly. The best part is that you can make up the mix and freeze the patties until you’re ready for them and BOOM convenience food!
I made a vegan version of these burgers by using garlic veganaise in place of the mayo and Bob’s red mill’s egg replacer instead of the egg (would have tried flax, but this is what I had on hand). The burgers held together relatively well while cooking and tasted good, like a beanier version of falafel, but with a wetter, less crumbly texture. I’d consider adding more sriracha or seasonings if I make these again, but it’s a solid addition to my vegan entree collection. Thanks for a great recipe!