Perfect Vegan Black Bean Burger

This easy vegan black bean burger is bursting with flavor: the patties are also gluten free and topped with spicy mayo & sprouts.

This post was created in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill. All opinions are our own.

Life is full of unexpected twist and turns, and if you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know it doesn’t always go as planned. Your friend bags on you for coffee. Your flight is cancelled. Your job is downsized. You don’t get in to your dream school. You were supposed to be married by now. You weren’t supposed to be divorced by now. You’re unexpectedly diagnosed with a disease, or living with un-diagnosed pain. Keep reading for a bit more on unexpected twists and turns, and how this relates to this vegan black bean burger recipe.

Related: Best Vegan Dinner Recipes

Unexpected twists and turns

Our minds may stray to the unexpected negative scenarios first, but there are positives too of course. And sometimes they sneak up on us. You find a person you want to spend your life with. You find joy in a long-lost creative outlet. You give birth to a baby, or adopt a baby. A broken relationship if your life is healed. You come to peace with a past trauma.

Such a crazy roller coaster, this life. Creating recipes and taking photographs of food is the last thing I thought I’d be doing with mine. Collaborating creatively with my husband, starting a podcast — all fairly unexpected. And the food? I never dreamed I would have a passion for healthy eating. The thought that I’d create a vegan black bean burger recipe? Literally, the last thing I’d imagine doing in my life. Yet here we are, and healthy plant based food has become a long-standing passion for me.

How about you: do you have thoughts on unexpected life twists and turns, and where your road has taken you? We’d love to hear – let us know in the comments below.

How to make this vegan black bean burger

This vegan black bean burger was created especially for our friends at Bob’s Red Mill using their gluten-free oats. And it’s one of our favorite vegan recipes to date! The trick to making a vegan black bean burger recipe is finding a binder that avoids the eggs or bread crumbs used in many typical veggie burgers. Here we’ve used sweet potato, which becomes a fantastic glue-like substance, along with oats for some texture. For flavor, we took some cues from a recent visit to a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Santa Fe. We’ve used soy sauce and mirin to simulate a teriyaki flavor in the burger, and a few sauteed shiitake mushrooms are the perfect topping. Along with some sriracha mayo, it makes a killer combination. (Or course if you want to go big on teriyaki, you could brush the entire burger with our Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce!)

If you’re gluten-free, feel free to serve this vegan black bean burger on a gluten-free English muffin. If you’re vegan, use vegan mayo. And if you’re like us and just love to experiment with many diets but aren’t a stickler in any category, use the traditional versions!

This vegan black bean burger is baked (not grillable, sadly) and takes about 1 hour to prepare. To us,the effort was well worth it. We made them on the weekend when we had a bit more time and they made great leftovers. Feel free to double the recipe and freeze leftovers for quick meals as well. Let us know if you try out this vegan black bean burger — as well as whether you have any life twists and turns to share.

Looking for more vegan recipes?

This recipe is…

This vegan black bean burger recipe is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and sugar-free.

Vegan Black Bean Burger

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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 1)

5 from 3 reviews

• Author: a Couple Cooks
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 4 1x

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Description

This easy vegan black bean burger is bursting with flavor: it’s also gluten free and topped with spicy mayo & sprouts.

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 small sweet potato (½ pound)
• 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 green onions
• 15-ounce can black beans
• ½ cup sunflower seeds (shelled)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 ½ tablespoons mirin
• 4 shiitake mushrooms
• ¼ cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons sriracha (or less to taste)
• 4 English muffins (gluten-free if desired, or omit)
• Alfalfa sprouts, for serving

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Wash the sweet potato and prick it with a fork. Microwave until cooked through, about 8 minutes, turning halfway through. Slice open and allow to cool until the steam dissipates and it is cool to the touch.
3. Place oats on cutting board and roughly chop with a knife to obtain a mixed texture. Thinly slice green onions. Drain and rinse the beans.
4. In a bowl, combine onions, oats, beans, sunflower seeds, kosher salt, garlic powder, paprika, soy sauce and mirin. Mix with your hands and lightly mash the beans with your fingers. Add ½ cup sweet potato and mix to combine.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form into 4 patties and place on the baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes on one side, then flip and bake 20 minutes on the other side. Cool slightly before serving.
6. Remove the stems and slice 4 shiitake mushroom caps. In a small skillet, add a splash of olive oil, mirin, and soy sauce, then saute the mushrooms until soft, about 1 minute.
7. Mix ¼ cup mayonnaise with 2 teaspoons sriracha.
8. To serve, place the burgers on toasted English muffins and top with mushrooms, spicy mayo, and alfalfa sprouts.

• Category: Main Dish
• Method: Baked
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: Vegan Black Bean Burger, Bean Burger, Veggie Burger, Sweet Potato Burger, Veggie Burger Recipe, Vegan Dinner Ideas, Healthy Dinner Ideas, Vegetarian Dinner Ideas

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About the Authors

Sonja Overhiser

Cookbook Author and writer

Sonja Overhiser is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best healthy cookbooks of 2018. She’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the food blog A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Sonja seeks to inspire adventurous eating to make the world a better place one bite at a time.

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Alex Overhiser

Cookbook Author and photographer

Alex Overhiser is an acclaimed food photographer and author based in Indianapolis. He’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the recipe website A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Alex is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best vegetarian cookbooks by Epicurious.

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