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These Easy Vegan Black Bean Burgers are made with only 5 pantry staple ingredients, yet are guaranteed to satisfy any burger craving. They’re freezer-friendly, easy to customize, and ready to eat in just 30 minutes! Sounds too good to be true, but it’s the real deal.
Two things that go hand in hand are burgers and summer. While there are plenty of store-bought veggie burger options available for purchase, we always love making them homemade. There is something about using simple and fresh ingredients to make burgers at home that is so much more appealing. Wouldn’t you agree?
If you’ve ever made veggie burgers at home, you know first hand that they usually have a ton of ingredients in them. While this isn’t a bad thing, we wanted to simplify things a bit and provide an impressive, flavor-packed recipe, using as few ingredients as possible.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Black beans: It’s no surprise these black beans call for…you guessed it – black beans! We opted for one 15 ounce can of black beans to make prep quick and effortless, but feel free to substitute 1 3/4 cups of black beans cooked from dry.
- Oats: Old-fashioned rolled oats will yield the best-textured burgers. If necessary, opt for gluten-free certified oats. Although oats in and of themselves are gluten-free, cross-contamination is common meaning traces of wheat are often found in regular rolled oats.
- Shallot: We used a shallot to add flavor to this black bean burger recipe. It’s milder than onion, yet still adds a bit of a flavor punch you won’t want to miss. If you love the pungent flavor of onion, feel free to opt for 1/2 a medium onion.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic cloves add additional flavor and make these burgers taste fresh. In a pinch, garlic powder will work but fresh cloves are superior when possible.
- Old bay seasoning: In order to keep the ingredient count down, we went with a spice blend for seasoning. Old bay seasoning is made with a blend of paprika, celery seed, garlic, salt, and black pepper. It’s the perfect ingredient to keep in your pantry when you need a simple flavor boost.
Equipment Needed
- Food processor
- Mixing bowl
- Cookie scoop or 1/2 cup measuring cup
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
How to Make Vegan Black Bean Burgers
- Process ingredients together. In the bowl of a large cup food processor, add the black beans, rolled oats, shallot, garlic, and old bay seasoning. Process for 15 to 20 seconds, or until the burger mixture begins to come together. Scrape down the sides as needed to make sure all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Chill for 30 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and cover using plastic wrap, reusable wrap or a clean tea towel and refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.
- Form the patties. Remove the bowl from the fridge and begin to form the patties. Scoop 1/2 cup of mixture out and use wet hands to form the mixture into even-sized patties. We were able to make 3 black bean burgers.
- Bake. Transfer the shaped burger patties to the lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Flip and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the patties are browned and feel solid.
- Serve. Serve black bean burgers while warm as desired.
Add-ins and variations
- Give these veggie burgers a spicy kick: If you love to bring the heat, try adding 1-2 tablespoons adobo sauce, hot sauce, chili powder, or a slice of vegan pepper jack cheese.
- Switch up the beans: We’ve made these homemade veggie burgers with black beans, white cannellini beans, pinto beans, and red beans and all have worked well.
- Change up the seasoning: If you can’t find old bay seasoning or simply don’t have it stocked in your pantry, feel free to use a seasoning blend of your choice. Italian seasoning or all-purpose seasoning blends will work great. Note that old bay seasoning does contain salt, so if your blend is salt-free, additional salt to taste will be needed.
- Stovetop method: If your making these delicious vegan black bean burgers in the middle of summer and want to avoid using your oven, cook these burgers on the stovetop instead. To do so, heat a little oil in a large nonstick skillet such as a cast-iron skillet. Once hot, place patties in the pan and cook on each side for about 4-5 minutes, or until browned.
Serving Suggestions
Serve these homemade black bean burgers on your favorite vegan burger buns with all the classic fixins plus a side of french fries, sweet potato fries, or Baked Mojo Fries. Here are some of our favorite toppings to inspire you:
- vegan cheese
- red onion
- sliced tomato
- sautéed bell peppers
- iceberg lettuce or leafy greens of choice
- pickles
- avocado slices or guacamole
- mustard, ketchup, relish, vegan barbecue sauce or vegan mayo
You can also serve these patties in deconstructed burger bowls for a hearty and nutritious homemade lunch.
Storage Instructions
Leftover burgers will store well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3 months.
The patties can be frozen before or after baking. To do so, arrange the patties so that they are not touching on a lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer to flash freeze for 1 hour, or until frozen solid. Then, transfer the frozen patties to a freezer bag or container. To further prevent the patties from sticking together, feel free to place a piece of parchment paper or wax paper between each patty before storing.
Refrigerated patties can be reheated in the oven, air fryer or microwave. Frozen patties reheat best in the oven.
Recipe FAQs
It varies by recipe. Some vegan burger recipes use ingredients such as a flax egg or bread crumbs, but we used old-fashioned oats. They’re affordable, easy to find in grocery stores, and are gluten-free.
We have not tested a grilled version of these burgers. From experience, our hunch is that they may fall apart and be difficult to work with. Instead, we’d recommend giving one of our grillable veggie burgers a try.
It is likely the burger mixture was over-blended or the ingredients were too wet. Make sure to thoroughly drain and rinse the beans and pulse the ingredients together until just combined.
We wouldn’t recommend using a blender because doing so may make everything too mushy. Instead, we’d recommend adding all of the black bean burger ingredients to a large bowl and mashing the beans with a potato masher until uniform. Then fold the ingredients together to form the burger patty mixture.
More Vegan Burger Recipes You May Enjoy:
- Sweet & Smoky Chickpea Burgers
- Grillable Veggie Burgers
- Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers
- Stuffed Vegan Jalapeño Popper Burgers
- Coffee-Rubbed Black Bean Beet Burgers w/Eggplant Bacon
- Vegan High-Protein Teriyaki Mushroom Burgers
- White Bean & Pumpkin Veggie Burgers
Make sure you tag us on Instagram @sweetsimplevegan and @consciouschris and hashtag #sweetsimplevegan if you recreate any of our recipes, we love to see your photos!
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Vegan Black Bean Burger Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 3 burgers
Description
These Easy Vegan Black Bean Burgers are made with only 5 pantry staple ingredients, yet are guaranteed to satisfy any burger craving. They’re freezer-friendly, easy to customize, and ready to eat in just 30 minutes! It sounds too good to be true, but it’s the real deal.
Ingredients
- 1 (15oz.) can of black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 3/4 cups) (or beans of choice– see notes)
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten-free rolled oats
- 1 large shallot, roughly chopped (or 1/2 medium onion)
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon old bay seasoning (or seasoning blend of choice– see notes)
- Black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor, add in all of the ingredients and process for 15 to 20 seconds, or until the mixture begins to come together, scraping the sides as needed. Place the bowl of the food processor (or you can scrape all of the mixture into a small bowl) into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
- Remove the bowl from the fridge. Scoop out 1/2 cup-sized scoops from the mixture and using wet hands, form the mixture into patties. We made 3 patties in total. Place the patties onto the prepared baking sheet and place them into the oven for 15 minutes. Flip the patties over and then bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the patties are browned and feel solid.
Notes
- If you would like to speed up the cooking process, you can also cook these burgers on a pan. For this, we suggest heating about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cooking the patties on each side until browned, about 5 minutes per side.
- We have tried this recipe with cannellini beans, red beans, and pinto beans and all have worked well!
- If you do not have Old bay, feel free to use a seasoning blend of your choice — just be sure to add salt the blend does not have any.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Entree, Burger
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Vegan, Gluten-Free
Nutrition facts label provided by Nutri Fox.
Disclaimer: The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional’s advice. This page may contain affiliate links, which means that we earn a commission if you purchase through those links, but your price remains the same. Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan!
Making these now for the second time. Simple and full of Deliciousness.
Easy to make. Thank you!
Can I use a blender instead or just chopped everything finely, mash the beans separately and then bring them all together?
The blender may make everything too mushy, so the later option would work best!
What can I use if I do not have a food processor?
a blender would also work!
I made this yesterday and they may be the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had! So easy to make and I love to simple ingredients. I doubled the recipe and put the leftovers in the freezer, so I can report back when I eat them again how they held up. So delicious!!
I’m back! I froze them and reheated them yesterday – just as good as they were the day I made them! A+!
Do you think I could make these ahead and grill later ? Thinkin for BBQ’s! Thanks in advance !
Hi Bobbie! We have not tested these on a grill so I am not 100% sure but I think these would be best if you made them, froze them, and then reheated them on a grill. If you put the raw patty on the grill, it may fall apart!
I can see now why the ingredient list is so short – since I can’t find Old Bay in shops I looked online for a recipe to make my own and I would need about 14 (fourteen!) different ingredients just to make the OB substitute and some of those aren’t available here either. So much for that.
If you are unable to use old bay, any spice blend of your choice will work. Just salt it to taste depending on how much salt/if there is salt in the seasoning blend 🙂
This was great! My husbands rule about eating vegan is that it has to taste great and this passed the test. Thank you. It would be great to get other flavored burger recipes with 5 ingredients like this one
We are so happy to hear that! 🙂
Hihi, I definitely wanna try this burger with much fewer ingredients than the others. But may I replace the old bay seasoning with the all=purpose seasoning ? Thanks!
Yes, that would work! 🙂
These were very good! I swapped the old bay for about a teaspoon of Berbere spice blend and a little salt. Thank you for the fewer ingredients!
Where can I find the dressing recipe pictured in the bowl with the burger?
That was a vegan tzatziki sauce that we were testing! It is not ready yet but will be on the blog eventually 🙂