Nothing beats a good veggie burger. Once you find the right recipe. They can be dry. Or, fall apart. Or take 2 hours to make. But these vegan beet black bean burgers have it all.
Store-bought veggie burgers typically come in two camps: loaded with processed soy protein or essentially protein free. It took me a while – and a lot of label reading – to find my favourites …made from actual beans and vegetables.
I really like the idea of making a homemade veggie burger but, for some reason, it’s was the one food that I pretty much always bought. One of those reasons is that veggie burgers typically take a long time to make: my (previous) favourite recipe takes like 90 minutes and a ton of steps. Not even close to reasonable. I would like to say that I spend four hours batch cooking on the weekend but in reality, I spend those four hours chasing after my kids.
Since sitting on my patio, eating a veggie burger loaded with all the fixings pretty much defines summer for me, I thought it was time I figure out how to make a simple bean burger at home.
Simple…and hella good. I’ve made it four times in the last month. And I can even find the energy to make them on a weeknight.
My beet burgers are super yummy, moist and loaded with good stuff like black beans, oats and flax. I’m a stickler for protein in a burger, because I recommend consuming protein at every meal.
This burger takes less than ten minutes to prep if you buy pre-cooked beets…don’t be a hero…buy the pre-cooked beets. Get these guys into the oven quickly and you can have a cocktail on the patio while they bake. Want a non-alcoholic sipper? Try my Watermelon Mint Chia Fresca.
Even more yummy veggie burgers and sandwiches
- Healthy Buffalo Cauliflower Veggie Burger
- Protein-Packed Vegan White Bean & Spinach Quesadilla
- Easy Vegan White Bean Sandwich with Crispy Kale
- Tangy Tofu Vegan Banh Mi Recipe
Beet, Black Bean and Walnut Burgers
Ingredients
- 2 cans (14oz) of black beans, drained and rinsed …or 3 cups of pre-cooked black beans
- 1 1/2 cup cooked beet chunks (about four smallish beets)
- 1/2 cup rolled oats (ensure they are pure, gluten free oats if you need a GF recipe)
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt *see note
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Preheat oven (or your BBQ!) to 375 degrees
- Toss all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until about 75% blended, to leave a bit of texture in the burgers. Remove blade, stir mixture with a spatula to mix in remaining chunks. Taste and adjust seasoning if required.
- Place mixture on nonstick cookie sheet by using a half cup
measure. Press to one inch thickness, forming eight round patties. - Bake for 30 minutes to allow a crust to form on bottom. Then, very carefully (these are soft burgers!!) flip, reshaping if necessary, and cook for 10-15 minutes on the remaining side.
- Serve with your favourite fixings! I love a combo of Dijon and Mayo on pretty much everything…and it works here too. And in the photo, we served the burger with a mixture inspired by one of my fave Ottolenghi salads: thinly slice a small red onion and place in a bowl, along with 1/4 cup of sliced dates (I like deglet noor or medjool). Pour 2 tbsp of balsamic and a sprinkle of salt
over them. Toss to combine and let sit for 30 minutes. AMAZING.
Trish Norris says
Hi! This looks delicious, however I am not a fan of beets( sad but true)! Can you suggest an alternative for me!
Thanks so much, I appreciate you!!
Desiree Nielsen says
Hi Trish,
Hmm…do you feel the same about golden beets? You’ll taste them less. Beets are a hard one to replace but you could try roasted zucchini. I haven’t tested it though so I am not sure!
Jordanna says
This recipe was absolutely delicious! Soooo easy to make which is a huge bonus! Because I can just dump everything in the food processor and call it a day, this will be another “go-to” weekly recipe like the chickpea scramble because it makes lots of left overs and is so quick to put together.
The flavor of the veggie burgers was perfect and absolutely fantastic! The outside texture had just a slight crust and the inside was soft and moist with just a little, nice crunch from the walnuts to keep the textures varied and interesting!
I did put this mixture on a nonstick baking sheet after forming the patties and put it in the fridge to set-up for 45 minutes. By doing this step, I absolutely had no problem flipping the patties to the second side in the oven! I flipped them like pancakes with no sticky mess! We followed all of Desiree’s suggestions with the condiments (girlfriend, you know what to do!)- mayo, Dijon, and we tried the Ottolenghi salad on top of the burger! We kept making the “mmmm, mmmm mmmm” sound and saying, “Oh, WOW!” throughout the entire meal without speaking. In my family’s book, that means this meal was too great to put into words. I paired these burgers with Desiree’s recipe for avocado ranch potato salad and Busch’s canned vegetarian beans with molasses and it was a feast! I hope you guys are open-minded enough to try the Ottolenghi salad! We tried it for the first time ever and will be remaking it every time we make these burgers! Have a great weekend, everyone! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jordanna says
Hello! Just wanted to share a few new things that I did for lunch left-overs today from yesterday’s lunch that my family really enjoyed.
For the Ottolenghi salad that we placed on top of each veggie burger, there was enough juice from it to pour over 3 of our 4 veggie burgers yesterday with the small sliced red onion, 1/4 cup of sliced dates, 2 TBSP of balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle of salt. Today, I used a medium sliced red onion, 1/3 cup of sliced dates, and the same amount of balsamic vinegar with sprinkling of salt as yesterday to yield a little more juice that covered 4 burgers with the salad on each veggie burger too. Pouring the juice over the burger from the Ottolenghi salad in addition to mounding the Ottolenghi salad on each veggie burger really intensified the extraordinary flavor! 😛 Secondly, we ran out of Dijon to mix with mayo to slather on the top and bottom of each bun. So I mixed Stone Ground mustard with mayo today and that also worked very well. The sweet and sour flavor of the Ottolenghi adds an AMAZING flavor dimension to this recipe! Love learning from you, Desiree! 🤗
Desiree Nielsen says
That sounds delicious Jordanna!
L. R. says
The whole recipe sounds fabulous to me. I’m a live-alone lazy cook; so I need to know if I can freeze remaining patties raw, to cook later? Hmmmm, or would precooked be better? I usually freeze homemade turkey-onion patties so can enjoy the aroma each time.
I am a little concerned with using so many dates. For some weird reason, if I eat dates or even 1/4 of a Lara bar now, I get freezing cold, super-tired and have to sleep for a couple hours! Any ideas?
Desiree Nielsen says
Hi LR!
You absolutely can freeze them raw. Just take care to freeze them between pieces of parchment otherwise you’ll never get them separated, ha! The date topping is entirely optional – 1/4 cup of dates is for the entire recipe, not one burger but if they don’t agree with you skip it! You can add just a tiny pinch of sugar to the onions to balance the flavour if you like. Enjoy 🙂
LR says
Good plan, Now I’m thinking a drop or two of maple syrup, unsulphered blackstrap molasses, or even Coconut Aminos. Mmmmm.
Thanks Desiree!