Bean and Oat Burgers

Yesterday was a disorganized day for me. Somehow I managed to be productive only I didn’t get to the items on my to do list. My juice experiment went out the window as did my plan to make mushroom burgers. I hope to get back to both of those later this week.

Have you ever looked for something you own only to realize you have way too much stuff? This is exactly what happened to me yesterday. I went to look for something that I had packed away in box and there were so many boxes that I wasn’t certain where to start looking. For the next few weeks, maybe longer, I am going to be purging my house of excess stuff. I will still be posting recipes and updates but may not be as quick to respond to comments until I get this project knocked out. This is something that I have needed to do for a while. Now I want to finish it before the weather turns nice and I can be enjoying the outside.

After lamenting for a while about the task in front of me I had to make dinner. Since I was no longer in the mood for mushrooms burgers I opted to use the beans I had in the frig and make bean burgers for dinner. These always work out well and contain a good deal of protein and very little fat. Here is what I made last night.

Bean and Oat Burgers
Makes 4 larger burgers about 7 ounces each

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked beans, no salt added (I used 1 cup black beans, 1 cup pinto beans)
1 1/3 cups oatmeal, dry
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cup vital wheat gluten

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees convection. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use a non-stick sheet pan, or a silpat baking mat.

Combine the beans, oatmeal and water in your food processor. Process the mixture until well combined. Turn the burger mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the spices and combine well. Add the vital wheat gluten and knead so all the gluten is completely absorbed.

Form the mixture into 4 burgers and place them on the sheet pan. Bake for 30 minutes and check to see if the burgers are done. After 30 minutes mine had partially risen (plumped) so I added a ½ cup of water to the pan and baked them for another 15 minutes.

If you would like to crisp the top and bottom of the burgers you can sear them in a hot well seasoned cast iron pan until they release on their own (about 3 minutes per side).

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 282.57
Calories From Fat (5%) - 14.25

Total Fat - 1.67g
Saturated Fat - 0.3g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 601.03mg
Potassium - 450.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 36.26g
Fiber - 9.72g
Sugar - 0.29g
Protein - 32.85g

Comments:

Last night I served the bean burgers with bbq sauce, brown rice, green beans and salsa, which made a fairly quick and definitely easy dinner. When I am short on time or inspiration I frequently make veggie burgers of some type. Salsa is something I use as a regular condiment to give foods flavor (and lycopene) without fat.  The burgers were topped with Organicville agave sweetened bbq sauce. If you haven’t tried that brand it is very good. We could put that sauce on just about anything.

The texture and flavors of these burgers is somewhere between seitan and veggie burger. It has the chewiness of seitan, which cuts with a knife. The flavor is reminiscent of a bean burger. We like the combination so I make many veggie burgers like this.  If you want them to be less chewy add less gluten.

Unrelated notes:

Today I want to spend a few hours going through closets gathering things for charity. I also have a walnut cheese experiment that I want to try. Since walnuts are the healthiest nut it would be good if I can figure out how to make them into cheeze.  Thanks for asking Jenn!

I am going to take a break at lunch time I will be responding to comments then. I hope you are having a good day.