You Eating Healthy's recipe for bean burgers went through many modifications, the main difficulty is getting them to hold together. The black beans, the corn, the kale ... all makes for a disjointed bunch of ingredients. But we have a "binding" formula.
I glued a mason jar lid, with super glue to the mason jar ring (white side is out and the thing is a bit concave then), then I put on a protective cover (a plastic Glad sandwich bag) and scoop about 1/2 cup of mixture and press the amount with the lid. Makes a nicely shaped burger, and I do it on a 4" x 4" square of parchment paper, then flip it carefully onto the parchment lined cookie sheet. Make sure to press and hold, and you have enough that it is squeezing a bit out on the sides to form a nice patty.
It also helps to refrigerate the mixture, prior to pattying it up for an hour. You can halve the batch to make about 10 burgers, or make a full batch ... they freeze well after baking.
Black Bean & Quinoa Burgers
Makes 20 burgers
Ingredients
4 cup black beans
4 cup quinoa (cooked)
3 cup yellow onion, finely diced
6 cup kale, stemmed and ripped (or cut) into 1" shreds
3 cup frozen corn, thawed (don't cook it, leave it at room temp)
1 cup ground flax seed, if you buy whole flax, put it into a Vitamix to 'grind' it
4 tbsp chic pea (garbanzo) flour, or I use Bob's Red Mill Fava/Garbanzo flour
1/4 c water
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tbsp ancho chili powder
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
Prep
Cook black beans (unless using canned black beans)
Cook quino 2-to-1 1.5 cup quinoa to 3 cup water should make almost 4 cups cooked
Cooking
Saute onion in olive oil until softened and brown (aprox 5-6 min)
Saute kale in olive oil (or even toast in a dry pan) until nicely fragrant and slightly brown edges
Binding Formula
In food-processor, combine 1 cup black beans, 1/4 c. water, flax and chic pea flour, blend until smooth, but don't overblend (not creamy, grainy is ok)
In a large bowl, add the remaining black beans, binding formula and mash with a potato masher until combined. Add the onions, kale, corn and stir with wooden spoon.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400-deg
Divide mixture into 4 oz. portions (about 1/2 cup, or a bit less) and using your mason jar lid contraption, patty up the burgers.
Bake at 400-deg for 18-20 minutes. When handling, you want to take care, they will fall apart, so spatula carefully. One technique, too, is to cut individual 4" squares of parchment for the patties, make them on the 4" squares, and leave them on the 4" squares until ready to grill or pan fry.
I've never tried grilling them, but it may work. I alway pan fry them (after baking) like I was making a burger, over med-high heat with a bit of olive oil in the pan for 3-4 minutes per side (until lightly browned).
To Serve:
I toast a good bun.
Put simple avacado-lime guacomole (you can make it anyway you like) on the top of bun,
On the bottom of the bun, I like mustard ... but on the cart we used chipotle mayo.
Layer red leaf lettuce, red onion and a thick slice of tomato.
And open wide !
We serve with wedge fries, but you can have any sides you like.
Nutritionally these burgers, with bun check out at about 700 calories, the same as a Quarter Pounder with cheese. The difference is it had 30 grams fewer fat grams (44 or something for the Quarter Pounder) and with the beasn, flax and kale ... a TON of fiber.
These are very filling burgers! Enjoy.