This post was sponsored by Better Than Bouillon as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.
Homemade vegan black bean burgers are loaded with flavor! Made with mushrooms, brown rice, sun-dried tomatoes, and Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Beef Base, this black bean patty recipe is easy to make comes together super quickly.
Load these veggie burgers up with your favorite fixin’s and top them with roasted garlic aioli. This black bean burger recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free.
Homemade Vegan Black Bean Burgers
I used to think that making my own veggie burgers was a daunting task. Once I learned how easy it was, I became a veggie burger making fiend! It’s just a matter of mixing ingredients together in a food processor and forming the mixture into patties. They can be made with tofu or just about any kind of bean, such as lentils or chickpeas. I used black beans in this recipe.
Store-bought veggie burgers can sometimes come with questionable ingredients. When you make your burgers at home, you can control what goes into them. You can also control the flavor, adding seasonings and spices to your liking. I’ve made these burgers with umami in mind.
How to Make Vegan Black Bean Burgers
- First, sauté the mushrooms.
- Then, add the mushrooms to your food processor along with the rest of the burger ingredients.
- Next, shape the mixture into patties and bake them.
- Mix together the aioli ingredients while the burgers are baking.
- Serve the burgers with your favorite fixin’s!
Storing Your Vegan Black Bean Burgers
Keep any uneaten black been burgers in an air-tighter container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
They can be frozen so you can have them on hand for busy weeknights. Wait for them to cool and then stack them, placing a piece of wax paper or parchment paper between each one. Place them in an air-tight container and place them in the freezer. Just reheat and serve when you’re hungry!
What is Umami?
In an episode of Parks and Rec, Chris Traegar and Ron Swanson have a competition to see who can create the best burger. (Both burgers are made from meat, unfortunatley.) Chris’s Asian-fusion burger is topped with toasted taleggio cheese crisp, papaya chutney, black truffle aioli, and microgreens. After a bite, Kyle says, “I love the umami flavor.” To which Jerry replies, “Stop being so pretentious, Kyle.”
Pretentious or not, I’m guessing Kyle would love these vegan black bean burgers, too, because they’re loaded with umami! I think Chris would literally like them as well.
As a kid, I learned that there are four tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. But there’s actually a fifth taste, and that is umami. Umami is best described as savory. We taste it through taste receptors that respond to glutamates, or amino acids. It’s abundant in the omnivore world, because it’s found in cooked meat. Some vegan sources of umami include broths, tomatoes, mushrooms, and nutritional yeast.
These burgers get their umami flavor from mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Beef Base.
Better than Bouillon
I love Better Than Bouillon’s products, because they add a boost of umami to just any dish. Most people think bouillon is just for making soups and stews, but it can be used for so much more! When making stir-fries, I like add a spoonful to the pan with a little water and use it to sautee veggies. (A trick I learned from my friend Jenna!) It’s great in sauces, marinades, and glazes, too. And here, I’ve used it give a flavor boost to my black bean veggie burgers.
Better Than Bouillon’s products are more versatile than store-bought stocks and bouillon cubes because they’re concentrated pastes. There’s no need to worry about cubes fully disolving or opened cartons going bad. Pastes are easier to work with because you can play around with flavor conentration by adding a little or a lot depending on what you’re in the mood for. And it’s easy to add a scoop right into the pan while you’re cooking.
Better Than Bouillon has five products that are Certified Vegan: Vegetarian No Chicken Based, Vegetarian No Beef Base, Organic Seasoned Vegetable Based, Seasoned Vegetable Base, and my new favorite Roasted Garlic Base. You can learn more on their website.
Roasted Garlic Aioli
Aioli is similar to mayonaise. It’s traditionally made with garlic, egg yolk, lemon juice, mustard, and olive oil. Unlike mayo, it’s usually served as a dip rather than slathered on sandwiches.
This vegan aioli is made with raw cashews that have been blended together with lemon juice, dijon mustard, and garlic. It gets a big flavor boost from Better Than Bouillon Roasted Garlic Base.
Vegan Black Bean Burgers with Roasted Garlic Aioli
Ingredients
For the Burgers
- 1 teaspoon neutral-flavored oil
- 2 cups mushrooms (about 5 ounces) coarsely chopped
- 1 14- ounce can black beans
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- ¼ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Beef Base
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Roased Garlic Aioli
- ½ cup cashews soaked in water for 2 hours, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup water
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Roasted Garlic Base
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
For Serving, Optional
- 6 whole wheat burger buns
- 1 tomato sliced
- Lettuce leaves
- Pickle slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, or until they’ve browned.
- Place the mushrooms, black beans, brown rice, rolled oats, sun-dried tomatoes, bouillon, and spices in a food processor fitted with an s-blade. Pulse until chopped and well mixed. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides of the food processor once or twice. It’s okay if the mixture is a little chunky.
- Divide the mixture into 6 equal pieces and shape each one into a patty. If you have one, a ring mold will help shape them, but forming patties by hand is completely fine.
- Bake the burgers for 10-12 minutes. Flip them and bake for an addition 8-12 minutes. They should be golden brown and firm.
- While the burgers are cooking, mix together the aioli ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender. If the mixture seems too thick, add a little more water, a tablespoon at a time.
- Serve the burgers on whole wheat buns with the Garlic Aioli and your favorite toppings.
Karen D
I love cooking with the No-Beef base, but have a hard time finding it. I try to avoid online shopping because of shipping costs.
Dianne
I'm lucky to live around the corner from a Whole Foods, and they carry it. You can ask your local grocery store to carry it. Some stores can be really accommodating to customer requests.