Quinoa Black Bean Burger

Despite what you might think, I try and use pretty common ingredients in my cooking.  (And now you're thinking- "Kefir? Whey? Kammut? I can't believe you just said that!" I know.) What I mean is- if it resides in my cupboard- it needs to be used frequently. None of this buying a special ingredient for one recipe and then letting it sit for a year.


Quinoa is a grain. If you are not familiar with it- in very general terms it's like rice. (You boil it like rice- you could interchange it with rice...) It is gluten free and has a fair amount of protein. It's pretty awesome. I use it a lot- therefore- I don't think it's weird.

And the following recipe calls for coriander. I don't have that on hand- so I leave it out- or use cilantro if I have it. (Coriander is the fruit of the plant (seed) cilantro is the leaves of said plant.)

And now I present to you:
The Quinoa Black Bean Burger.

FYI: if you make this expecting it to taste just like a hamburger- you will be disappointed.  It's really good all of it's own accord- but it's not a beefy burger. Although they look similar- they are different. Each good in their own right.

Quinoa Black Bean Burger 

adapted from here

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Quinoa
• Sea salt & cayenne
• 1 Tbsp.  paprika (smoked is best to get that “meaty” flavor)
• 1 Tbsp. cumin
• 1 Tbsp. coriander (I use cilantro if I have it)
• *just a dash* cinnamon (secret ingredient)
• 1 Cup chopped pecans (I’ve used walnuts too, if I’m out of pecans)
• 1 Cup organic ketchup
• 1 15 oz.Can black beans (rinsed)
• 1/2 Cup panko breadcrumbs (I’ll just stick a piece of bread in the food processor and make my own bread crumbs…)

1A. (optional step) Put quinoa in pot with 2 cups water and 2 T acidic medium (kefir, lemon juice, whey…) Soak for 8-24 hours. Then add 2 more cups of water, bring to a boil- and then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed (about 20 min.)

1B. (If you didn’t do 1A) Bring to boil 4 cups of water. Add 2 c. Quinoa. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed.

The next steps depend on the size of your food processor. A blender would work too. Basically, you blend up the rest of the ingredients and then mix it together in a bowl.

My food processor requires multiple blending batches. I blend up ½ of cooked quinoa with ketchup, blend it- bowl it. Rest of quinoa and spices- kind of blend- bowl it. Nuts- blend- bowl. Beans- blend- Bowl. Slice of bread- blend- bowl. That sound kind of hard- but it’s not. I don’t wash the food processor bowl in-between blends. It takes maybe 5 min. to do it all. 

Then form patties and cook it on skillet on med-high about 4 min. on each side.

(Or you could cook in a 400 degree oven for 12 min- flipping half way through.)

Makes 12-16 patties (depending on size)

Serve on a bun like a burger or all by itself with some veggies.  Every member of our household likes these.