Salsa black bean burgers

So far, I'm just going backwards in my playing catch up.  These were last night's dinner.  I'm thinking they would have been better if I had not been such a goober and actually followed the directions, but hey they still turned out great -thanks in large part to the wonderful home made guacamole Brandon made.  He used lemon this time rather than lime, but I really liked it. I included the recipe below.  He also thought it was a bit salty, but I thought the burgers turned out to be lacking something - probably salt.  All put together the meal was delicious.  It's rating is as a whole - by themselves the burgers would have been a little bit lacking in flavor, but together it was wonderful.   Of course I worried at first - always do with a vegetarian meal at my house.  :)

I did double the original recipe, and changed the pepper from jalapeno to poblano since I have some anti-spicy kiddos.  Feel free to cut it in half if you want to only make 4 burgers)  I served them on these buns which are now my go-to buns (although I'm getting creative in my uses of flours - today I used 5 or so Tablespoons of brown rice flour (whatever was left in my container), a couple Tablespoons of gluten, some wheat flour (2 cups plus maybe a tablespoon or 2 can't remember), unbleached white flour (1 cup), and 2 Tablespoons hi-maize starch)

Yield: 8-9 burgers

Ingredients

• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/3 can dry bread crumbs  (I ended up using more, but that was from my mistake of adding oil)
• 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped (make sure they are seeded.  You don't want extra moisture in your mix.)
• 2 eggs
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and finely chopped (I ran this through the food processor)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (would definitely use garlic salt next time and probably twice as much)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (to fry in - do not add to the mix!! -this is totally for me next time I make this.  I'm such a goober somedays.)
• buns
• optional toppings - we used taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole and cheddar cheese.  I also sat out salsa and ketchup which I think some of the kids used.

Directions

1.  The recipe had you mash the beans in a food processor.  Mine didn't do a good job, it just threw them to the side then I had to keep scraping them down which is a chore because in a bosch food processor you have to take the whole thing apart and off of the machine to open it and scrape it down.  Such a pain, but totally another subject -just don't get a bosch food processor - enough said.  I recommend just mashing your black beans with a potato masher.  That is what I have done for other recipes and it works great.  Either that, or maybe an immersion blender.  Either would work much better than the food processor.  (Unless of course you have one that works better than mine.)
2. Place mashed black beans in a large bowl and add bread crumbs, tomato, poblano, egg, and garlic.  Mix until combined.  Shape into 8-9 patties.  (I did add the oil and added extra bread crumbs and even some instant oatmeal to help my patties form.  If your patties are too sticky and moist that is what I suggest.)
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet and cook patties in batches 4-6 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.  (I actually cooked mine on a large electric skillet sprayed with cooking spray (since I already added the oil.  That allowed me to cook all 8 at once.)  
4. Serve on buns.  Top with sour cream, guacamole and cheddar cheese if desired.  I put a squirt of taco sauce on the bottom bun.

To make our home-made guacamole last night, My husband smashed up 2 avocados, added 1 seeded diced roma tomato, a couple tablespoons finely diced onions, salt and the juice of 1 lemon.  That's it and it was tasty!!!