One of my favorite techniques for stretching my food budget is substituting half of the meat in my meals with beans. So, when I got an email from one of my readers, Lori, with a link to this Black Bean Turkey Burgers recipe on Allrecipes.com, I had to go check it out. It looked super simple and tasty, but I wanted to make my own version. I took a cue from Lori, who said she liked to add her own spices, like cumin and sriracha, and decided to throw a southwest spin on the black bean and turkey combo.
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What’s in Black Bean Turkey Burgers?
Well, besides ground turkey and black beans (obviously) I used a simple mix of chili powder, cumin, garlic, and cayenne to flavor the beans and meat, then added sliced green onion for some color, texture, and flavor. That’s it! That’s all you need to make an insanely delicious black bean turkey burger.
How to Serve the Mini Burgers
You can eat these Mini Black Bean Turkey Burgers on a bun, but I opted for pita bread because they tend to be less expensive where I live. I added a few slices of tomato and made a simple avocado-sour cream sauce because avocado were on sale. The sauce was just for fun, really, so you can skip it if needed, or even just do sliced avocado if you’re short on time.
Can I Make Full-Sized Burgers?
I made these burgers mini-sized because A) they cook faster and B) two small patties will fit in my pita better than one large patty. Feel free to make regular sized patties if you want, just know that they’ll like need to cook a little longer.
Want Even *More* Flavor?
If you want to be extra fancy, you can mix some shredded pepper jack into the meat and bean mixture for little pops of cheesy goodness in your burgers. HELLO YUM. I love cheese in my burgers.
Mini Black Bean Turkey Burgers
Servings 5 (two patties each)Ingredients
BURGERS
- 1 15oz. can black beans* ($0.60)
- 3 green onions ($0.38)
- 1/2 Tbsp chili powder** ($0.15)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.04)
- 19 oz. lean ground turkey ($4.59)
AVOCADO SAUCE (optional)
- 1 avocado ($1.00)
- 1/2 lime ($0.20)
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 cup sour cream ($0.75)
- 1/2 tsp sugar ($0.01)
BURGER TOPPINGS
- 5 pita halves ($0.83)
- 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced ($1.12)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Drain and rinse the black beans. Place the black beans in a large bowl and mash them slightly with your hands or a potato masher. Slice the green onions and add them to the bowl along with the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir until the beans are evenly seasoned.
- Add the ground turkey to the seasoned black beans. Mix well using your hands. Form 10 small patties (about 2-2.5 inches diameter, 1/2 inch thick). Place the patties on a roasting pan or a baking sheet covered with foil and wire cooling racks.
- Bake the patties in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until browned on the outside and no longer pink in the center. Alternatively, you can cook the patties in a skillet, on a grill, or using an indoor countertop grill.
- While the patties are baking, prepare the avocado sauce. Add the avocado (diced), juice from half a lime (about 2 Tbsp), garlic powder, salt, sugar, sour cream, and 2-4 Tbsp of water to a blender. Blend the ingredients together, adding the water slowly until a smooth, thick sauce forms.
- Smear some of the sauce inside each pita half, add a couple tomato slices, and two of the turkey patties.
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Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Wire Cooling Racks
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Love turkey burgers? Try my traditional Turkey Burger recipe, Greek Turkey Burgers or Green Chile Turkey Burgers!
How to Make Black Bean Turkey Burgers – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rinse and drain one 15oz. can of black beans. Place them in a large bowl and use your hands or a potato masher to slightly mash the beans.
To the mashed beans add: 3 sliced green onions, 1/2 Tbsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt.
Mix the ingredients the bowl until the beans are well seasoned. If you’re using low sodium canned beans, or beans you’ve cooked yourself without salt, you may want an extra 1/4 tsp salt. If you taste this mixture now, it may be very strong or salty, but remember these seasoning have to spread throughout the turkey as well and will end up much more mild.
I’m not sure why ground turkey always comes in 19oz. packages, but they do (here in the U.S. anyway). If your packages aren’t 19oz, you can just use about 1.5 lbs.
Add the ground turkey to the bowl and mix with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.
Form the mixture into about 10 small patties, 2.5 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick. There are several ways you can cook these patties, including a skillet, a grill, or something like a George Foreman Grill. I chose to bake them because Lori said she likes this method best and because they can just cook all at one time without much babysitting. I made a make-shift roasting pan by covering a baking sheet with foil (for easy cleanup) and placing two wire racks on top. This allows the hot air to circulate under the burgers and for the fat to drip away.
Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. After baking they should be browned and no longer pink in the center. You may need to sacrifice one patty and cut it in half to be sure. Remember, if you make a different sized patty, the baking time will vary.
While the patties are baking, you can make the avocado sauce. Add 1 diced avocado, the juice from half a lime (about 2 Tbsp), 1/8 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and 1/2 cup sour cream to a blender. Blend the ingredients together, adding water slowly (about 4 Tbsp), until you have a thick, smooth sauce.
To make the “burgers”, spread some of the avocado sauce inside half a pita, add a few slices of tomato, and two of the mini black bean turkey burgers.
Easy, delicious, and super healthy! Seriously, these burgers come together in just a few minutes and bake quickly, so this is a great weeknight meal option. :D
Instead of lightly mashing the black beans, I am thinking of going closer to a purée. I have several family members whom I have to hide beans from. 🙄🤦🏼♀️ Do you think this will cause any issues with binding the ingredients??
Thank you.
I look forward to trying lots of your recipes!
I don’t believe so, though as we have not tested it with a puree we cannot say for sure. xoxo
Attn: Beth
What’s the best method for freezing these burgers. I can’t wait to have these. I only ask cause my homegrown tomatoes 🍅 are almost ready for picking. Thanks for this inspiring burger 🍔
Hi Julie! Shape the patties and then stack them, separating each patty with wax or parchment paper. Then wrap with plastic film and place inside a freezer safe container. XOXO
Thanks for the tip. Also toasting the naan bread is a great idea too as I prefer the mini naans with these burgers.
These tasted really great. I improvised an added 1/3 cup bread crumbs, one egg an a little cilantro along with the ingredients. Formed the patties sautéed them in a cast iron skillet till I got that brown crust on each side of the burger an then finished them in the oven for 10 more minutes at 325 degrees.
I’ve made these like 30 times. They are SO GOOD!! A favorite in our house and amongst our friends.
Love it!
This looks delicious! How long does the sauce last in the fridge?
About 4-5 days.
I did not have the ingredients for the sauce but is still so good! I ended up making it like a quesadilla burger! Tooped with cheddar cheese (because its what i had), sour cream lettuce and salsa!
This was so easy and so good. I think I could eat that sauce with a spoon. Actually, I definitely could. I topped my burger with some fresh baby spinach and it was SO good!
Quick, easy, cheap, and delicious!! Its even quicker if you do not make the sauce.
Made these tonight and loved them. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
These look amazing! I especially love the idea of using 1/2 a pita pocket. Thanks for sharing.
Will these freeze well after being cooked?
Yes, they should freeze fine either before cooking or after cooking. :)
Made these for dinner and they are wonderful. I made the avocado sauce but didn’t use a blender. Added red pepper flakes, chopped plum tomato and cilantro to the sauce. Ate them without pita, but did serve them with roasted asparagus. Thanks for the great recipe. Will make these again. So easy to make!
Ok these are soo good!! I made mine into 6 regular size patties and cooked about the same time, just turned the oven off and left them in a for a few minutes. Even my 4 year old (kind of) liked them! A little too spicy for his taste. So good to know they’re kid friendly if you dial back the spice a little bit. Honestly I think my favorite way to have it was cut up on a salad with tomato, cabbage, and blue cheese dressing!
I’ve made these several Times with the sauce and they are amazing :)
However, I am cooking a small batch of these tomorrow- Beth do you think these will freeze well after baking?
They should, you’ll just need to be careful not to over cook them while reheating. I suggest a skillet over low heat so that they have time to heat through before the outside gets over browned or dry.
Just had these for dinner, they are Amazing!! Didn’t change a thing!
These burgers were awesome! I cooked them in batches on my cast iron skillet. My portions were a little different, as I could only find 16oz of ground turkey in a package. Also I love spice so I used a little more of all the dry spices than called for.
I bought a bunch of cilantro to use for another one of Beth’s recipes but I had extra, so I added about 1/4 cup to the avocado sour cream sauce. I also melted some pepper jack cheese on top of the burgers. They were so good!!!!!
I’ve made a lot of these recipes and never commented but I felt it necessary this time because I always find myself disappointed when I try other black bean or turkey burger recipes. Apparently the trick is to do both at once! No greasy beef burger cravings here. Lovely recipe, highly recommend.
These were ah-maaaaazing. Such a simple little recipe, with so few ingredients, but what a winner!
I made both the burgers and the avocado spread. I added little pre-cubed cheddar cubes to the burgers: the flavor was perfect, but I think I’ll add shredded cheese next time as I think the cubes hindered the burgers’ ability to hold together.
With the avocado sauce, I used: 2 medium avocados, the whole lime, and 1/2 a cup of plain yogurt in place of the sour cream. I kept the salt and garlic powder amounts the same. Since the plain yogurt was more watery than the sour cream, I didn’t end up adding any water. I think next time I’ll use 2 limes: the flavor was great, but I like to add citrus to my recipes at about 4x the rate of the average person.
So, so good! I can’t wait to eat these for lunch for the rest of the week. This recipe is definitely going into my rotation.
Oh! Also, I didn’t use any sugar in the avocado sauce. Turned out great!
Hi! I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but it looks delicious! I was just curious about how long the avocado sauce lasts? I plan to use it within a week, but avocados just turn brown so darn fast that I’m nervous about making a large amount then having it turn an ugly color.
Thank you!
I don’t remember how long it lasted, but the lime juice and sour cream definitely help slow the browning. You can also press a piece of plastic wrap down onto the surface of the sauce (in whatever container you keep it) to prevent air contact. That should help! :)
My avocado sauce lasted the whole week. I followed Beth’s suggestion and placed a piece of saran wrap on top of the sauce before putting the lid on the storage container. The sauce was just as green and just as flavorful on Friday as it was on Sunday evening when I made it.
hi can i use chicken instead? thank u.
Just substitute ground chicken for the ground turkey.
These were amazing and so easy! I also added a chipotle in adobo sauce because we had leftovers from another recipe. I only made the burgers but they were phenomenal! I have made a lot of delicious recipes from this site but this may be the best one yet!
I am excited to make these! I was wondering how you suggest making them to eat over a few days. Should I cook them all and then microwave them or freeze the raw patties and cook as needed?
I like the idea of freezing them pre-cooked, I think. They shouldn’t take long to thaw, since they’re small, then you can have them freshly cooked in no time.
These were awesome, so much protein! Love your site. Next time(oh there will be a next time..), I’m going to try to avocado sauce. Thanks for this :)
Absolutely loved this recipe!!!
I had these for lunch every day last week and still looked forward to them on Friday. And, 2 co-workers complimented my lunch. Since I’m looking to increase my protein consumption, these were perfect…inexpensive, delicious, and packed with protein.
This recipe was amazing! I had coworkers in the break lounge lurking wondering what I was having. Will surely put this in my regular recipe rotation. Thank you!
Awesome flavour. I had some leftover tortillas so I formed the burgers into rectangular shapes and used 2 per wrap. I had a package of southwest dressing which I mixed with a bit of sour cream, chili and cumin. Very tasty
Yay! I’m so glad you tried (and liked) my recipe suggestion! I like the idea of using pitas; buns ARE weirdly expensive. For the commenter who suggested using more seasoning, I make mine with smoked paprika, sriracha, cumin, and cayenne, and I love that combination. I also use shredded cheese, bread crumbs, and egg, but it looks like they might not be totally necessary as binders–though the cheese is pretty delicious. :c)
I know I would have loved some shredded pepper jack in there, but in all honesty, I forgot about it when I was at the store! Then after I realized, I figured it might have made them a little too costly anyway. Next time, though, I WILL add some cheese! <3 cheese
I’ve been using the recipes from your website for about a month, and usually I’m just a lurker. But these burgers turned out so great!! I didn’t make avocado sauce, but later I surely will. Thank you so much for giving us all foodspiration on a budget!
Usually I love everything you make, always so much flavor. But I thought these were a little bland, the sauce was great but the burger didn’t have much flavor. Maybe I will add a little more spice and try it again.
These look great and would be perfect for work lunches. I like how easy it would be to alter the flavorings in this recipe and make the burgers have a whole different flavor. I want to try Asian spices and I think it would also be really good with white beans, craisins, sage, etc. for a “Thanksgiving” flavor,
Just had these for dinner. Added an egg to the mix as I was having a hard time mixing in the turkey.
The avocado sauce is magnificent.
Thank you Beth!
These look amazing! I especially love the idea of using 1/2 a pita pocket. Thanks for sharing.
These looks packed. I find this recipe similar to falafel burgers I make. And may I say this is a win dish with turkey… And itt’s cheap to make too!
Love this! Sometimes I cut meat with zucchini or tofu, but I’ve never done beans. I’m thinking chickpeas and turkey for a falafel-meatball hybrid?
Oooh, that is SUCH a good idea! I might have to try it myself. :)
I made these tonight for dinner. I assumed you meant 1/8 tsp, rather than 18 tsp, of cayenne. I also upped the flavor/spices by using Cuban style black beans. These were great, and very quick.
One note – I cooked them on my outdoor grill. The combination of beans and meat is very crumbly, especially for the grill. I will probably bake them as you suggested next time, although I hate having the oven on in the summer!
Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Thanks for catching that typo!
These look amazing, but with 18tsp. of cayenne pepper I’d be breathing fire! :D Did you mean 1/8tsp. by any chance?
I did, sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know! :D
Mmmmm. You’re speaking my language, Beth. I’m a HUGE fan of black beans and turkey burgers, so this recipe is right up my alley!! :-)
This looks yummy! Did you meant to write 18 tsp of cayenne? Or just 1tsp
I meant 1/8th. Sorry about that!!