Black Bean Burger - from Vegan Zombie

I was searching around Youtube for ideas of what to make next, when I came across a channel called The Vegan Zombie.  Here the protagonist is acting like he's in a Zombie Apocalypse caused by a disease spread by consuming animal products and only Vegans have survived - weird story but it makes his cooking videos interesting.  When I ran into his black burger recipe I HAD to give it try, mainly for it's great Mexican inspired ingredients - for those who don't know, I'm Mexican and will try occasionally to infuse my heritage in my cooking.  That being said, you can expect this burger to give a little kick, but you can control that factor any way you'd like...so let's begin.

Ingredients:

• 1 large potato (diced) -Yukon potatoes work great! 
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp sage [I forgot this when I made mine but it still came out great!]
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2-3 cloves grated garlic
• 1-2 chipotle pepper (you control the spicy!) - La Costeña is great brand for these
• 1/2 half poblano pepper (diced) - might be called "Pasilla" pepper at the market
• 1 1/2 cups or can of black beans
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2-1 cup vegan breadcrumbs ( I used panko)
• > 2 tbsp of oil 
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 tsp salt & pepper (can add more to your liking)
• 1/4 cup Daiya Pepper Jack (optional) 
• 1 1/2 tbsp of beer (optional)

Directions: 

1) Chop up your veggies, beginning with your potatoes, and heat up your med-large pan with about 1 tbsp of oil on medium heat - you'll want to throw in the potatoes a couple of minute sooner since they take longer to cook

2) Throw in the rest of the veggies and herbs and cook until soft and brown, you'll want to avoid making the potatoes crispy

3) When ready remove from heat and throw into a mixing bowl or food processor.  To give your food a little more taste, you can deglaze your pan with some beer and add it to your mix.

4) Now you can add your beans, sugar, bread crumbs, salt and pepper to mix it up [or pulse with food processor]. You want to get a mixture between mushy and firm, this may require adding some more breadcrumbs, my total use of bread crumbs was about a cup especially since panko is a very light compared to others.  If you using the non-dairy cheese [I personally didn't use any], this will also help as a binding agent. 

 
TIP: Although I was impatient, letting everything cool before mixing will also help it all to bind easily.  Also, since we're not using any raw meats, you can taste the mixture and see how much additional salt, pepper or whatever it could use.  You can already taste how delicious it's going to turn out!

5) Once it's at thick consistency, rub your hands in flour and start modeling the patties to be about as thick as your thumb, then dredge them in flour - I was able to make 6 patties.

6) By now you can have a pan brought up to medium heat with 1 tbsp of oil per two patties and start cooking the rest of the burger.  Maybe 5 minutes or so on each side; you want to char the sides a little bit to hold everything together and get a more burger taste.

7) Now you should be able to enjoy this burger with any toppings, sides and the rest of your beer! 

For those curious, I use the Franziskaner Dunkel Hefeweizen, one of my all time favorite German beers, Prost!

My review of the VZ black bean burger: I have tried numerous types of black bean burgers [lacto-ovo vegetarian style] before and I must say, this has been by far one of the tastiest I've ever had and I will do again!  Next time, I think I'll try to keep with his original recipe and see how much better it'll turn out.  I personally am not trying to get in the habit of eating imitation animal product foods, like vegan bacon or the daiya cheese (hence my lack of use for it in this recipe) since it'll most likely be more expensive than the real stuff and I don't wan to just eat the same old stuff I had before.  But I'm sure I'll try that stuff eventually (I saw some vegan chorizo once, GOTTA TRY IT SOMETIME!).

Nutritional info: This recipe is very high in protein, fiber, and carbs from the beans alone.  Combing it with the poblano pepper, which is high in Vitamin C, allows your body to absorb the Iron in the beans and the whole wheat bread that you can use to house this delicacy.  Also with the added spice factor, it'll slow down your chomping-food-rate and make you feel full very fast for a good long time; just one burger with a few chips and the beer filled me up! If you want to reduce the fat intake, you could avoid adding the oil in this recipe all together and broil the patties in a oven for about 5-10 min on each side.

Side Note: I decided to store my extra patties uncooked except for one and after reheating them both, they still taste just as delicious. I'd recommend keeping them in the fridge no longer than a week or you could throw them in a freezer to keep them for much longer!

Sources:   

Original Recipe

Nutritional facts