B-b-b-bean Burgers

For some reason, I am intimidated by burgers. I have a beet-carrot burger I make and it's a ton of work. I've tried a few others, but the texture of homemade burgers often displeases me. I still don't feel like I've found my go-to quick burger recipe.

Last night I saw a bean burger recipe linked to a New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/mark-bittman-going-semi-vegan.html?_r=2&ref=magazine) and I've been wanting to make it all day. After work, I picked up some oats so I could make them tonight. I added a few extra ingredients, but basically stuck to the recipe.

Pros:

• These burgers are handsome. I was worried that the pasty texture would make them difficult to mold into patties, but they were easy to mold and held their shape very nicely.
• These are the easiest things in the world to make if you have a food processor. I whipped them up at 9:00 for dinner. This blog post is taking longer to make than the burgers did.
• The recipe makes four large burgers.
• The recipe is very basic and begs for you to add your own creative twist.

Cons

• The texture is not excellent- a bit mushy like most veggie burgers I make. I'd add sesame seeds or coursely chopped veggies or nuts to the food-processed mixture next time for an extra little crunch. I added some dethawed frozen corn, but that didn't do the trick.

Here is the recipe, with my slight variations added.

Ingredients

1 onion

1 can of beans (preferably white)

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 Tbsp. Chili powder

1/2 tsp. Coriander

Hamburger buns

1/2 cup frozen and de-thawed or canned corn

Olive oil

Preparation

1. Cut onion into chunks and put it in a food processor, along with drained canned beans (white are best here, but any will work), oats, chili powder, coriander, and salt and pepper.

2. Pulse, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides as necessary.

3. Taste; if it’s too dry, add water; too wet, add more rolled oats, a tablespoon at a time.

4. Mix in corn.

5. Divide the mixture into four even patties and cook them in olive oil until nicely browned each side. (Turn carefully.)

6. Serve on toasted buns with favorite toppings.