This is the Best Spicy Black Bean Burger for a reason! These vegan burgers are PACKED with flavour, protein, healthy fats, fibre and even a little vegetables! Perfect for vegetarians and omnivores, alike!
The weather is getting warmer so I know a lot of us are looking to add more grilled recipes to our repertoire! As you all know, I’m not vegan, but I do make an effort to try to incorporate more plant based recipes into my diet, and this spicy vegan black bean burger has been SUCH a family hit. I’ve eaten a LOT of veggie burgers and if I’m being honest, usually they’re a little bland. But I was determined to make a flavour PACKED burger the whole family loved!
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
While most black bean burgers contain some black beans mixed with breadcrumbs and eggs, mine combines fibre rich oats, nutritional yeast, flax and even mushrooms to the party for a nutrient dense burger! Here are a few more reasons why we LOVE this burg.
- Loaded with protein (24 grams per serving)
- Fibre packed! (20 grams per serving)
- Family friendly
- Perfect summer meal
- Vegan & gluten free
Key Ingredients
Mushrooms – This gives an umami flavour and extra nutrition, just make sure you squeeze out the excess moisture REALLY WELL after you pulverize the mushrooms in a food processor.
Oats – This is your binder, and is a lot more nutrient dense and fibre rich than traditional breadcrumbs.
Black Beans – This lends your protein and fibre, and also makes a nice paste to bind everything together.
Nutritional Yeast- Nutritional yeast is packed with protein and if you get a fortified version, it also contains vitamin B12 which is really important for people following a vegan diet.
Ground flax – Loaded with protein, fibre and omega 3s, this lends a ton of nutrition and also some binding properties to boot!
How To Make This Recipe
Step 1: Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 30 minutes until caramelized and golden. Add to a bowl.
Step 2: Pulse the mushroom caps in a food processor until it looks like ground meat.
Step 3: Put in cheesecloth or a sieve and squeeze out the liquid as best as you possibly can. Add to the bowl.
Step 4: Puree the black beans, oats, chili, cumin, paprika, BBQ sauce, worchestershire, sugar, yeast, flax, salt and pepper until fairly smooth. Add to the bowl.
Step 5: Add the black bean paste to the onion, garlic and mushroom and mix well. Form into 4 patties and refrigerate the patties for 30-60 minutes.
Step 6: Heat the olive oil over medium high heat and pan-fry on each side until golden brown. Serve on a bun topped with your favourite veggies and sauces.
Expert Tips
If you don’t want to pan fry the spicy black bean burger you can grill or barbecue them instead!
We also don’t want the patties to hold too much moisture otherwise they won’t stick together very well. So squeezing out the liquid from the mushrooms is a really important step as well as draining and rinsing the black beans. If you find that the patties aren’t sticking together, you can add an extra tablespoon of oats.
Recipe FAQs
These absolutely can be kid friendly but if your kiddo is sensitive to spice, make sure you choose a mild BBQ sauce and you can leave out the chili powder (or just add a bit).
You are getting a good amount of protein from the beans, nutritional yeast, and flax – plus a little in the burger bun depending on if you go whole grain.
Absolutely. I recommend placing these burgers once formed onto parchment or wax paper and then freezing them on top of one another in a freezer bag. These will keep in the freezer for up to 4 months.
They actually can be completely gluten free if you just make sure to choose a gluten free tamari or worchestershire sauce, and of course use a gluten free bun.
There are so many great summer recipes on my blog. I would definitely make sure you have some kind of salad or veggie dish with this burger. You can also do a nice fresh fruit dessert. Here are some favourites:
Watermelon Avocado Salad
Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges with Avocado Sauce
Watermelon Gazpacho
Brussels Sprout Slaw
More Recipes You Might Like
Yes, we love burgers and just totally want to get grilling as soon as it gets nice out. Here are some of our favourite burgers (vegan and meat based)!
- VEGAN HAWAIIAN BURGER WITH LIME AIOLI
- VEGAN WALNUT QUINOA BURGERS
- BEST HEALTHY BURGER RECIPES FOR THE SUMMER
- HUMMUS BURGERS
What makes a great veggie burger to you? Have you tried these spicy vegan black bean burgers? Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
Spicy Black Bean Burger (Vegan Recipe)
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 small onion finely minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 227 g mushrooms stems removed and cut into pieces
- 1 19 oz can about 2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup plus 2 tbsp quick cooking oats gluten free if needed
- 1/2 – 1 ½ tsp chili powder depending on how spicy you like it
- 1 ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- 3 tbsp barbeque sauce
- 1 ½ tsp vegan worchestershire sauce soy sauce or gluten free tamari
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 6 tbsp nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup ground flax
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp Olive oil for frying
Burger accompaniments:
- Burger buns
- Vegetables lettuce, tomato, pickles
- Sauce BBQ sauce, mustard, ketchup
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 30 minutes until caramelized and golden. Add to a bowl.
- Pulse the mushroom caps in a food processor until it looks like ground meat. Put in cheesecloth or a sieve and squeeze out the liquid as best as you possibly can. Add to the bowl.
- Puree the black beans, oats, chili, cumin, paprika, BBQ sauce, worchestershire, sugar, yeast, flax, salt and pepper until fairly smooth. Add to the bowl.
- Add the black bean paste to the onion, garlic and mushroom and mix well. Form into 4 patties and refrigerate the patties for 30-60 minutes.
- Heat the olive oil over medium high heat and pan-fry on each side until golden brown. Serve on a bun topped with your favourite veggies and sauces.
Nutrition
Updated on October 4th, 2021
Abbey Sharp is a Registered Dietitian (RD), regulated by the Ontario College of Dietitians. She is a mom, YouTuber, Blogger, award winning cookbook author, media coach specializing in food and nutrition influencers, and a frequent contributor to national publications like Healthline and on national broadcast TV shows.
Lai says
Hi Abbey. They are awesome. I just wanna know if the bun is included in the nutritional information. Thanks!
Abbey Sharp says
yes i believe so!
Liv says
Just made these for dinner last night. Did them on the bbq instead since it was nice out! They held together great and were super flavourful! Thank you!!
Abbey Sharp says
They’re definitely one of my new favs! Thank you so much for the 5 star rating 🙂
Prachi says
Could I barbecue these on a grill instead of frying them?
Abbey Sharp says
Definitely
Yelena says
I just wanted to tell you my little one loved this, and it has seriously been a while since he loved something at dinner time.
Thank you so much!