Black Bean Burgers

Homemade Black Bean Burgers. So simple. Sooo good. Certainly cheaper than buying giant bags of veggie burgers from Costco and I’m thinking probably less than a pound of hamburger meat.

1 can black beans

½ bell pepper, any color

½ red onion

2 cloves garlic or garlic scapes if you happen to be so lucky as to come across them

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp salt

½ jalapeño pepper

2 roasted green chilies

¼ cup corn meal

Wash and drain the beans then smash aggressively with a fork. The alternative is to puree with a hand blender but make sure it doesn’t get clogged. After they are somewhat creamy, try to drain them again to remove as much moisture as possible.

Chop and add all the veggies and spices and mix well. To prevent from bean mush going between the bars on the grill, I prefer to bake these for about 20 minutes at around 400 degrees.

I’ve been adding ¼ cup or so of hominy to this recipe, and I haven’t noticed any adverse effects thus far. Once upon a time I had hominy hash at one of my favorite brunch locations, Root Down. I don’t know that I’ve ever had hominy before but I fell in love.  So when I saw a 12 pound can in Costco for something like 4 dollars, I had to have it. I made one measly attempt at recreating the hash and was forever disappointed. Turns out my beloved magic white kernels were bland with an unappealing texture… and I had 11.75 pounds left. Accordingly, I froze what remained and have tried to find some excuse to use it in whatever I could. Well six months later I only have about 11 pounds, so I’m certainly making progress.