INGREDIENTS:

15oz of cooked black beans (canned or dried but soaked and cooked.)

½ cup of cooked quinoa ( ¼ cup uncooked quinoa simmered in 2/3 cups water until all the water has cooked out.)

3oz of tomato paste

1tsp paprika

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1/3 cups breadcrumbs

½ tsp cumin

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small shallot diced

4-5 crimini mushrooms diced

2 cloves garlic

DIRECTIONS:

Combine ¼ cup quinoa with 2/3 cup water and bring to a boil. Once boiling add salt to water and turn down to a gentle simmer.

While Quinoa is cooking you can rinse your black beans and place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Place a medium sauté pan on the stove and add a Tbsp of olive oil to the pan and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is heated add your shallot to the pan and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let the shallot cook until slightly softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add in your mushroom and the garlic minced to the pan and cook until the mushrooms release their water, about 3-4 minutes. Turn down the heat to Medium low and let the mixture cooked until nice and golden brown and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

While your onions and mushrooms are cooking you can mash your black beans. Either by using a potato masher or a fork mash your beans until they are mostly mushy, I like to leave some lumps of bean for texture. You can now add your onion mixture to the beans, the spices, tomato paste and breadcrumbs. Mix until well combined.

Form four equal sized patties and place them on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet or a large plate. Refrigerate burger patties for at least an hour.

In a large sauté pan heat 1 Tbsp of oil over medium-high heat and when heated add 2 of the burger patties. Cook for 3 minutes on one side and then flip and cook a further 3 minutes on the other side. Dress up your burgers on your favorite buns with your favorite burger toppings. This time I opted to go with a Dijon lemon vegan mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickles.

You can also freeze your burger patties to use another time. Freeze your burger patties on parchment paper on a baking sheet or large plate. Once frozen you can place them into a Ziploc bag or a freezer safe food container. I recommend leaving parchment paper in-between each burger to keep them from sticking. ff