Black bean burgers are not your ordinary vegetarian patties. This recipe is packed with bold southwest flavors, wholesome beans, and made with ease in a food processor or blender. Add extra flavor to each burger with your favorite toppings and spreads for a customizable hand-held meal!
Black bean burgers are an affordable plant-based protein. This meal is easy to prepare, all you need is a food processor or blender. Legumes are a favorite ingredient to incorporate into meatless patties because they’re neutral in flavor and hold shape when mashed and formed. Not to mention, they’re a nutritional powerhouse, packed with fiber and protein in each serving to satisfy your appetite.
What’s also neat is the dark-colored beans give a similar appearance to their beefy counterparts, for a tasty surprise! This hearty burger recipe is vegan-friendly and makes for a fun to customize meal with delicious toppings of your choice.
How to make Black Bean Burgers
The challenge with making bean burgers is they’re often mushy or crumble and fall apart when cooking. The beans are thoroughly drained to help control the amount of moisture in the mixture, however, don’t through away the liquid!
The liquid contains natural starch from the beans and helps make a sticky paste. Adding a small amount back and whisking to aerate lightly before combining with the rest of the ingredients helps with binding. A small amount of flour is added to assist in binding because as it becomes hydrated and mixes, gluten formation helps to create protein bonds that like to form and stick together.
Black beans can be pretty bland, and admittedly boring. That’s where concentrated dried spices and fresh herbs step in. A generous amount of cumin, coriander, garlic, cilantro, garlic, chili powder, smoked paprika salt, and pepper are stirred into the patty mixture. If you like a little spicer burger, add some hot sauce for a kick!
To make a more sturdy base for the pattie that holds together, adding in some crushed corn tortilla chips instead of breadcrumbs adds texture, more starch for binding, and helps to absorb some of the bean liquid to keep the burger moist and flavorful.
Adding chips essentially creates a panade for the beans burgers. They should be processed into crumbs using a food processor or blender, but not entirely ground down like a flour. Corn chips complement the earthy flavors of the seasonings for a southwestern taste.
The beans are processed with the corn chips just until light broken down, with some chunks remaining. It should not be fully pureed like a hummus, although it would be equally delicious. Once all of the bean burger patties ingredients are solidly packed and formed, it’s time to cook!
A nonstick skillet is the best way to get a golden and crisp surface without adhering to the pan. Each bean burger patty is cooked in the skillet with some oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side.
Now it’s time you add the toppings! You can keep it classic with some lettuce and tomato, and spread like mayonnaise or barbecue sauce. I also recommend guacamole or homemade salsa. For this meal, I was inspired by the fresh spring ingredients at the market, so I added thinly sliced radish for crunch, salad greens, and creamy avocado slices.
Get creative with a burger bar and have guests add their own toppings!
No matter if you’re a typical fan of meat patties, or you’re looking for plant-based meat substitute options. These black bean veggie burgers are a great way to add some fun and flavor back into mealtime. Serve them with a side of crispy homemade sweet potato fries, and you’ve got a crowd-pleasing complete meal!
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If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #jessicagavin on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
The Importance of Adding in a Panade
A panade is a mixture of a starch with liquid to create a paste. This mixture helps to bind proteins together, added texture and structure, and keeps food moist. Most often applied in meatballs and meatloaf, the same principle can be used to help the beans bind together using the starches in the corn chips, flour, and liquid from the beans. The result is a more sturdy burger patty.
- 30 ounces canned black beans , (851g)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour , (17g, 1/2 ounce)
- 1/4 cup minced green onions , (32g, 1 ounce)
- 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic , (4g)
- 1 teaspoon cumin , (2g)
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 3/4 cups corn tortilla chips , (30g, 1 ounce)
- 1/4 cup olive oil , (60ml) divided
- 5 hamburger buns
- Line a baking sheet with three layers of paper towels.
- Reserve 6 tablespoons of the liquid from the black beans and place in a medium-sized bowl.
- Rinse the black beans, shake to remove excess moisture and evenly spread across the paper towels. Allow beans to dry while preparing the other ingredients.
- Add flour to the bowl with the bean liquid and whisk until smooth.
- Add minced onions, cilantro, garlic, cumin, coriander, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, stir to combine. Set aside.
- Add chips to a food processor and process on high speed until finely ground, about 30 seconds.
- Add the dried black beans to the food processor and pulse until coarsely ground, about 5 pulses.
- Add black bean mixture to the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir to combine.
- Measure out 1/2 cup of the black bean mixture and form and flatted into 4-inch wide patties. Makes 5 black bean burgers.
- Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add in 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Once the oil is hot carefully and in 3 patties. Cook patties until browned and lightly crisp, about 5 minutes.
- Carefully flip over the patties and add in 1 tablespoon of oil. Cook until the other side is browned and crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Repeat cooking process with the remaining two patties and 2 tablespoons of oil.
- Serve patties with burger buns and desired toppings.
Recipe Video
- Suggested Toppings: Lettuce, tomato, avocado, onion, lettuce.
- The recipe can be evenly split into six smaller patties, however, purchase smaller size burger buns.
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup (121g, 4 1/4 ounce) plus burger bun
- Recipe adapted from America's Test Kitchen Vegan for Everybody.
MAKE IT GLUTEN-FREE: Substitute all-purpose flour with gluten-free flour and gluten-free burger buns.
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Hi Jessica,
I really don’t care for the burgers in the store but I have wondered how to make my own without them falling apart and looking too unappealing to eat. These look pretty and all the information on binding the ingredients assures me I will get a good result. Thank you for another great recipe. I fly home Sunday. Looking forward to seeing our home and my husband. A little early, but since I will be flying the day of, Happy Mother’s Day.
We made those for dinner tonight. We are not vegetarians, but we try to limit meat. Normally, it’s falafel or tofu instead of meat patties for us, but those are a really tasty alternative! Do you think I could replace the black beans with kidney beans? Canned black beans are a little hard to find where I live.
Thank you for your feedback Rike! I think kidney beans will work too, however, the color will be more pink than brown. Let me know how it turns out!
I made this yesterday. An excellent recipe: really tasty and worked just as described.
To tread more lightly on the planet, I reduced the tortilla chips to powder with a rolling pin, and crushed the beans with a fork.
And in the interest of my health, I cooked the burgers in a George Foreman Grill – so no added fat/oil at all. Worked perfectly.
Could you tell me if the amount of corn chips is before or after crushed.
Hi Denise- Great question! The amount of the chips is before it’s crushed. The whole chips get broken down in the blender. Thanks!