Black Bean Burgers : What to do with that lonely red pepper in the veggie drawer

Got one of these peppers in the bottom of your vegetable drawer? Here’s what to do – grind it up with some onions, garlic and black beans, add spices and an egg…. Voila! AWESOME black bean burgers.

This recipe comes from my lovely sister, who made these for us a few weeks ago. She served them with sweet potato fries and broccoli salad. Yum.  I put roasted tomatoes and avocados on mine and served them in a toasted flour tortilla. No time for sides in my house.

I think the best thing about this recipe is that you must freeze the burgers before baking them and you bake them from the frozen state, which makes them perfect for a weeknight meal.

Here’s what you need:

A red or green pepper

½ onion

3 cloves garlic

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 egg (or vegan egg substitute) 

1 T chili powder

½ T cumin

1 t hot sauce

¾ C oatmeal

Here’s what you do:

Process the oatmeal until fine. Set aside. Process the pepper, onion and garlic until very smooth. Strain out the liquid and return the veggie pulp to the processor. Add the beans and process until very smooth.

Remove the mash to a bowl. Add the oatmeal, egg and the spices. Form into 4 patties, wrap, and freeze.

Bake at 375 degrees on an oiled baking sheet for about 20 minutes. Flip them after about 10 minutes. No need to thaw them!

Excellent! My new favorite vegetarian meal! 

(printable recipe)

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Bonus: have you toasted flour tortillas like this yet? Very fun! Put them in the oven until crispy.