Black Bean Burgers

I love veggie burgers!  No, I’m not vegetarian, I’m definitely a meat-o-saur, but I do love a good veggie burger.  The best veggie burgers in the Twin Cities (IMHO) were made at a place called Mill City Café in NE Minneapolis.   We would drive all the way over there (from where we live it’s a good 45 minute drive) for those burgers.  Mill City Café closed to move to a new location so I was really missing my black bean burgers!  They are now open in their new location and are called The Mill Northeast.  If you're in the neighborhood you should definitely check them out! I can’t wait to try them again!

I then found a spot much closer to home, Ward 6, where the veggie burgers were pretty darn close to Mill City Café!  Thank you Eric and Bob for keeping them on the menu!

 

I’ve tried the frozen veggie burgers and they are ok too but I’ve wanted to find a good recipe for a while.  Enter Pinterest!  Sunday morning I was browsing Pinterest and came upon a spicy black bean burger recipe that looked really promising.  It had brown rice, garlic, onion, red bell pepper, corn and black beans seasoned with chili powder and cayenne, how could it not be good?

Here is a link to the recipe so you can Pin it too!  Spicy Black Bean Burgers

I threw the brown rice in my rice cooker while I prepped the rest of the ingredients.

 

I hand mashed the cooked black beans while the peppers and onions sauteed in a pan.  The peppers, onions and corn added to the black beans, the cooked rice and the seasonings.  

The recipe then called for blending half of this mixture into sort of a puree.  This makes the burgers less chunky and helps hold them together.  I love it when I get to use my immersion blender!

 

The halves are brought back together, an egg white and some Panko crumbs are added and it's time to make patties!
 

They smelled wonderful!

I topped one with a little habanero aioli I pick up from my friend's at San Pedro Cafe in Hudson, WI, some spinach and a little tomato.  Put all that goodness on a bun from PJ Murphy's bakery and you have dinner! 

They taste even better!   These are so delicious, especially topped with a little habanero aioli, tomato, and spinach on a bun from our favorite local bakery.   The batch made 10 burgers.  They are in the freezer just waiting for me to warm them up and devour them.  Keeper!

P.S.  Don't worry Mill Northeast and Ward 6, I'll still be in for your burgers!