Red Bean Veggie Burgers

For my dinner last night, I wanted a giant veggie burger.  I'm trying to cook everyday for dinner and also cook more recipes for my Italian cookbook.  Lats night I started making the veggie burger recipe I was thinking about all day and then realized I didn't have onion or nutritional yeast.  But I made them anyway and they were so awesome.  I had red beans and black beans so I used to red beans for a change and the burgers turned out well.  For me, the bigger beans work better in a veggie burger recipe.  It's hard to get the perfect balance of beans, flour and liquid so that the burgers can be made on the stove and not fall apart-yesterday's recipe worked out well with no crumbling burgers.  I bought cannellini beans and chickpeas at Whole Foods today; the cannellini beans will be a part of my meatball recipe that I'm working on tonight.


1 carton of red (kidney) beans (I used the 13.4 oz Whole Foods carton of beans)
1 cup of oat flour (process 1 cup of rolled oats in your food processor)
1 cup of almond flour (leftover from almond milk)
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tbsp of garlic powder
Thyme
Dried basil
Dried oregano
3/4 cup of vegetable broth (add slowly!)
Sea salt

Make your oat flour first in your food processor.  Process 1 cup of rolled oats on high.  Add to a medium bowl.  Add your almond flour; if you don't have that particular flour, substitute with more oat flour or use garbanzo bean flour.  Pour the beans into strainer and rinse them well.  Add them to the bowl.  Add the baking powder and spices and start stirring/mashing the beans.  Slowly add the veggie broth, stir, add the broth again and stir well.  The mixture will start to get sticky so that you can form into patties.  Add more broth if you need to but keep the mixture sticky and not watery.

Spray a pan with olive or coconut oil and form the mixture into patties.  Turn the heat on low and cook the burgers on low while covering the pan.  You want them to be cooked all the way through so flip the burgers at least once.  Serve on your favorite hamburger bun or use a romaine lettuce leaf as a bun-that is so delish!  I topped mine with spicy mustard.

This recipe, depending on the size of your burgers, makes about 6 medium sized burgers.  If you're making falafals or meatballs, it will make about 15 if you keep them small.  Serve over pasta or with a salad.  Leave a comment here if you make this and enjoy it!