Black Bean Quinoa Burgers
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These vegetarian black bean quinoa burgers are easy and quick to make, so they are perfect for a healthy and affordable weeknight meal. Tasty, hearty, and can easily be made vegan too!
If you are looking for a healthy and tasty way to mix up your weeknight meals, I’ve got the perfect recipe for you that’s sure to please even the pickiest eaters!
These vegetarian black bean quinoa burgers are packed full of nutrients and fresh ingredients. And, even better, these burgers are super affordable if you’re looking to eat healthy on a budget. They can also easily be made vegan, by substituting the egg for a flax egg.
Tools and Equipment You’ll Need
How to Make These Black Bean Quinoa Burgers – Step by Step
Step 1: Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse onion and garlic until finely chopped.
Step 2: Add 1 can black beans, cilantro, parsley, egg, and red pepper flakes and pulse to combine.
Step 3: The mixture is ready when it looks like this:
Step 4: Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining can of black beans, quinoa, and the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and mix until well combined.
Step 5: Divide mixture into 6 portions and form into patties.
Step 6: Place on hot oiled grill over medium-low heat and cook about 6 minutes a side or until heated through.
Step 7: Toast hamburger buns on a grill. Place a burger on the bottom of each bun. Top with baby spinach (or lettuce), tomato, onions, and ketchup. Cover the burgers with the top of the bun and serve with regular fries or parmesan truffle fries!
Are Black Bean Burgers Healthy?
Yes!! Black Beans are one of the healthiest, vegan and vegetarian-friendly proteins, as they are low in calories and packed with protein, fiber, potassium and folate. These burgers are a great meat-free alternative that you can easily incorporate into your weekly meal plan.
Will Kids Enjoy these Black Bean Quinoa Burgers?
Veggie burgers are always a big hit with my kids, because they love the burger bun and all of the toppings! These black bean burgers are super mild, not too spicy or strong in flavor which makes them perfect for kids.
If you have little ones who aren’t great at picking up a burger without everything falling out, I recommend serving up a “deconstructed” burger. The way you do this is: cut up the patty into bite sized cubes with ketchup for dipping and serve the bun + toppings in bite sized cubes on the side!
Can Black Bean Burgers be frozen?
These budget friendly burgers freeze really well. The patties can be frozen before OR after cooking, just stack them with parchment paper separating them and store them in a ziplock bag.
To reheat if frozen before cooking: Thaw them in the fridge and then just cook them as per the recipe below.
To reheat if frozen after cooking: Thaw in the fridge or on the countertop and warm them up on a skillet just to re-crisp the outside.
What toppings do you put on these black bean quinoa burgers?
When topping these burgers, I stayed classic, and used tomatoes, red onions, baby spinach, and finished them off with some ketchup. Other toppings that would work great include:
- Feta cheese
- Fresh guacamole
- BBQ sauce
- Caramelized onions
- Pepperjack cheese
- Arugula
How do you keep these black bean burgers from falling apart?
To keep homemade burgers from falling apart, you need binders. There are two key ingredients (binders) that hold these burgers together: breadcrumbs and eggs! You can easily use gluten free breadcrumbs for a gluten-free binder, or flax eggs for a vegan binder!
Top Tips for Making Black Bean Quinoa Burgers
- To make these burgers vegan, replace the egg with a flax egg.
- Don’t over-process your ingredients! You want the mixture to be chunky, not a full puree, otherwise it will be mushy on the inside after you cook it.
- If you don’t have a food processor or blender, you can use a potato masher or a fork!
- You can use olive oil cooking spray for the grill pan if you need an easy way to grease it before cooking the burgers.
- One tip you can try to make your burger even chunkier and meaty is to partially dry out the black beans in the oven before you add them to the burger mixture. I got this tip from Serious Eats. All you have to do is take the rinsed/drained canned black beans and spread them onto a lined baking sheet — baking them for 15 minutes in the oven before adding them to the mixture.
Be sure to check out these other vegetarian burger recipes!
- Falafel Style Lentil Burgers with Creamy Feta Sauce
- Southwestern Pinto Bean Veggie Burgers
- Quick and Healthy: Black Bean and Pumpkin Veggie Burgers
- Grillable Veggie Burger by Minimalist Baker
If you have tried these black bean quinoa burgers, or any other recipe on my blog, then please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious, healthy, family friendly food!
Black Bean Quinoa Burgers
These vegetarian black bean quinoa burgers are easy and quick to make, so they are perfect for a healthy weeknight meal.
Servings: 6 burgers
Calories: 250kcal
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium red onion roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 30 ounces canned black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves
- 2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
- 1 egg (or 1 flax egg)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs or oat flour
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 4 sprouted wheat burger buns
Burger Toppings:
- Sliced Tomato
- Sliced red onions
- Baby spinach leaves
- Ketchup
Instructions
- Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse onion and garlic until finely chopped.
- Add 1 can black beans, cilantro, parsley, egg, and red pepper flakes and pulse to combine.
- Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining can of black beans, quinoa, and the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and mix until well combined.
- Divide mixture into 6 portions and form into patties.
- Place on hot oiled grill over medium-low heat and cook about 6 minutes a side or until heated through.
- Toast hamburger buns on a grill. Place a burger on the bottom of each bun. Top with baby spinach (or lettuce), tomato, onions, and ketchup.
- Cover the burgers with the top of the bun and serve.
Notes
Top Tips for Making Black Bean Quinoa Burgers
- To make these burgers vegan, replace the egg with a flax egg.
- Don’t over-process your ingredients! You want the mixture to be chunky, not a full puree, otherwise it will be mushy on the inside after you cook it.
- If you don’t have a food processor or blender, you can use a potato masher or a fork!
- You can use olive oil cooking spray for the grill pan if you need an easy way to grease it before cooking the burgers.
- One tip you can try to make your burger even chunkier and meaty is to partially dry out the black beans in the oven before you add them to the burger mixture. I got this tip from Serious Eats. All you have to do is take the rinsed/drained canned black beans and spread them onto a lined baking sheet — baking them for 15 minutes in the oven before adding them to the mixture.
Nutrition
Calories: 250kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 85mg | Potassium: 544mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 105IU | Vitamin C: 1.1mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 3.5mg
This looks really healthy, I’m all for healthy recipes so I would love to give this a shot, will I achieve a different texture or the same with the normal burger recipes?
Thanks so much!! This won’t have the texture of a regular meat-based burger, but it will still hold together well and will be super satisfying!