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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! Or you could go another direction with homemade BBQ 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. It turns out seriously flavorful, with the perfect texture: one of our very best bean recipes!
This vegan black bean burger is baked (not grillable — here’s our Grilled Veggie Burger). It 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?
Outside of this vegan black bean burger, here are some of our favorite vegan recipes:
- Vegan Pot Pie with Savory Sage Crust
- Mexican Sweet Potatoes
- Incredible Vegan Nachos
- Jackfruit BBQ Sandwich
- Instant Pot Thai Sweet Potatoes
- Moroccan Cauliflower Soup
- Grilled Mango Tacos with Dream Sauce
- Very Veggie Vegan Pizza
- Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies
- All our vegan recipes!
This vegan black bean burger recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and sugar-free.
Vegan Black Bean Burger
This easy vegan black bean burger is bursting with flavor: it’s also gluten free and topped with spicy mayo & sprouts.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the black bean burger
- 1 small sweet potato (½ pound)
- ¾ cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats
- 2 green onions
- 15-ounce can black beans
- ½ cup sunflower seeds (shelled)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons mirin
For the shiitake mushrooms *or substitute Shiitake Bacon
- 4 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 splash each olive oil, mirin, and soy sauce
To serve
- 4 English muffins (gluten-free if desired, or omit)
- Spicy Mayo, Special Burger Sauce, or Avocado Mayo (about 1 tablespoon per serving)
- Alfalfa sprouts, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- 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.
- 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.
- In a bowl, combine onions, oats, beans, sunflower seeds, kosher salt, garlic powder, smoked 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.
- 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.
- Remove the stems and slice the 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.
- Make the Spicy Mayo.
- To serve, place the burgers on toasted English muffins and top with mushrooms, spicy mayo, and alfalfa sprouts.
I did your recipe last nite was very good but aliitle salty I feed 80 staff every day have 10 vegetarians well try it out them on Monday
Hello Alex and Sonja
This is now my favourite burger. So delicious. The only changes I made was to half the mirin and soya sauce, and I added curly leaf parsley.
Very simple to make, not time consuming at all. I did appreciate not having to leave the burgers to rest before baking.
So happy you signed me up again to receive emails.
Thanks for a yummy recipe.
So glad you enjoyed them!
Hi Alex and Sonja, I’ve recently had to try and learn vegan cooking, as my son and I have diet issues, he’s highly allergic to eggs and anything w/egg products and I cannot have spicy foods, or dairy due to a recent medical condition, Finding recipes that taste good is difficult. Can you recommend any recipes that are easy and taste great? I just read your burger recipe looks wonderful, is there a way to substitute a sauce or topping without mayonnaise that tastes good? I would have lettuce tomato mushrooms and Swiss on a turkey burger in past, not sure how to top these? Help please :)
Good question, thanks! There are several great vegan mayo brands on the market today that you can find at your local grocery: you could just use mayo plain or try this burger sauce with it: https://www.acouplecooks.com/special-burger-sauce/. If you can’t find vegan mayo, you could make this tahini sauce: https://www.acouplecooks.com/best-lemon-tahini-sauce/
Could the ingredients be pulsed in a food processor? I don’t prefer chunky things in burgers. Mostly it’s the sunflower seeds I’m worried about being too chunky. Thanks!
Yes, just be careful to not over process!
I’m super picky about veggie burgers and don’t like most that I’ve had. I can honestly say these are the best I’ve ever made, they are SO delicious!! I did use russet potato in them as I hate sweet potatoes. I served them with sugar free bbq sauce and mayo, no sprouts. It was like eating a decadent treat and they weren’t super mushy like some burgers. Thanks, such a great recipe!
I so glad you enjoyed them!
do you freeze them cooked or raw?
Cooked!
i absolutely have been dying to make these. can you add the nutrition facts please?
I just added the info (burger only, without bun). Enjoy!