I was browsing the website, skinnytaste.com, the other day and came across this idea for black bean burgers made from scratch! I thought, how hard can that be?

It would give me another use for my food processor again. And, the best thing I love about this recipe is that you can make a bunch, and store in the freezer until you are ready to make a burger. They freeze extremely well.

Freeze Ahead Black Bean Burgers

Makes about 12-13 burgers

Ingredients

• 2, 16 oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained well. Pat dry with paper towel.
• 1 small red pepper (if large pepper, use a little less), cut in large pieces
• 1/2 a bunch of fresh cilantro
• 4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, with 2 tsp. of the adobo sauce
• 1/2 a yellow onion, sliced
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats (use GF oats to make GF recipe)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp. dried cumin
• pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil, for cooking

Directions:

1. Rinse and drain the beans. Make sure to dry well. Excess moisture in this recipe makes the burgers too liquidy.
2. Put all of the ingredients in a large food processor, and blend together! If you do not have a large food processor, you can use a smaller one to blend all of the ingredients except the beans. You can mash the beans with a fork, and then stir the ingredients together.
3. Chill the mixture for about 30 minutes to help firm so you can make into burgers.
4. Next, line a large plate or baking sheet with wax paper or plastic wrap. Spoon out the plate like you are making large cookies.
5. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to make the burgers. **I recommend freezing in a plastic freezable container if you are not going to make that night or the next day.
6. To cook: Heat a large saute pan with 1 Tbsp. olive oil on medium. Add the burgers still frozen to the pan. Cooked uncovered for about 6-8 minutes per side. Flip when they become firm enough to put the spatula underneath.

You could serve on some whole wheat buns, or just eat it by itself. I prefer it on top of a salad with some avocado! Yum!

The next day, I brought it to work with a side of Brussels sprouts.