Baked Black Bean Burgers

Baked Black Bean Burgers

Memorial Day weekend is here! Its one of those holidays that everyone celebrates, but rarely for its true meaning. Memorial Day was a holiday designed to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War, but through the years has become a day for recognizing all fallen American soldiers. Lets take a moment and do that, shall we? Even if its just in your head, thank everyone who does nice things for you. 
Anyway, as far as most of us are concerned, Memorial Day is just an excuse to stay home from work and have the first barbecue of the summer! 
Instead of barbecuing, we decided to bake our very first successful batch of Black Bean Burgers. And they were goooood...and gluten-free!

Plus, they're deceptively easy to make. We took our inspiration from a circular at Mother's Market for the month of May and made burgers with a black bean base...but there are so, so many more delicious ingredients involved than just beans! We wanted to increase the goodness of these burgers as much as possible, so we added some sprouted pumpkin seeds, sweet potato, quinoa, and carrots. You can just never have too much nutritional value!
The addition of BBQ sauce and chili powder adds just the perfect little kick to this smoky black bean burger.

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked black beans
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup mashed sweet potato
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup roughly chopped (we use these) sprouted pumpkin seeds
1 cup freshly grated carrot
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup chili powder
3 tablespoons vegan barbecue sauce
1 Tablespoon (2 cloves) minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/4-1/2 cup water
1/4 cup GF oats

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, please!
In a food processor, combine ALL ingredients except oil, water, and oats.  Combine until ingredients are all mixed, but not mushy. There will still be some chunks in this burger!
Pour contents of food processor into a large mixing bowl. Add water and oil, and stir well. Add oats to mixture, allowing to absorb any excess moisture.
Form into hockey-puck-ish sized patties, and place onto a non-stick baking sheet. 
Bake for about 15 minutes on each side, or until burgers are uniformly browned and cooked all the way through. Serve with tomatoes, avocado, grilled onions, sprouts and your favorite mustard on a delicious whole wheat or gluten-free bun. 
Makes 12+ burgers.
Wrap 'em up and they last for a week in the fridge.

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