Portobello-Black Bean Burgers

Hey everyone! I know I only recently put up a post but I'm doing another one today to make up for my slow posting in general. We finally got our long-anticipated grill (delivered by Puralator since we're in the midst of a postal strike in Canada) and so we've been pretty much grilling everything we can. I wanted to find a vegetarian meal that we could grill and that would be a good replacement for red meat since I'm trying to reduce my red meat intake. I have made the classic portobello burger in the past but wasn't too keen on a mushroom cap acting as the replacement for the burger meat itself and wanted to find something that incorporated mushrooms but was more like a patty. I came across a recipe for portobello-black bean burgers in SELF magazine, where the portobellos and black beans are ground up (and with other ingredients) formed into patties. I love this recipe because it's so healthy and it's a great way to get your daily servings of vegetables into a meal. Be warned though, these "burgers" are a practical replacement for a red meat burger but they really do not taste anything like meat, though they are very delicious.

Ingredients:

(for the burgers)

-1 tbsp. olive oil

-10 oz of portabellos mushrooms, stems cut, coarsely chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced

-1 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped

-salt and pepper

-1 19 oz can of black beans

-1/4 tsp. chili powder

-1/4 tsp. paprika

-1/4 tsp. cumin

-1/4 tsp. garlic powder

-1/4 tsp. dried basil

-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

-1/4 cup bread crumbs

-1/2 cup panko

-1 egg

-5 whole grain flat breads

-1 avocado, sliced

(for corn relish)

-1 small can of corn

-2 tomatoes, diced

-1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

-2 tsp. fresh lime juice

-1 tsp. paprika

Directions:

1.  In a frying pan, heat olive oil on medium-high. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Towards the end, after about 8 minutes, add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Set pan aside to cool.

2.  Meanwhile, rinse the black beans in a collander. Place them into a food processor and blend for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and onion when they are cool. Blend until mixture is smooth. Transfer into a bowl. Mix in the spices (you can really use how much or how little you want, it depends on your palate), salt and pepper to taste, egg, panko, and breadcrumbs. The mixture should not be runny and should be easily made into patties, if your mixture can not do this continue to add breadcrumbs and panko until the mixture is thick. Shape the mixture into 5 patties and put aside or wrap in plastic wrap and you can freeze them or store them until later.

3. Add all the relish ingredients into a bowl, keep aside.

4. Heat your grill to high or sear (or heat a pan with some vegetable oil in it to medium-high). Add patties and cook for 5-10 minutes per side, until a crust develops on the outside and they are firm. Serve in a flatbread topped with the avocado slices and the corn relish.

Note: When calculating the nutritional information, I corrected for the fact that there was A LOT of relish left over, and among the 5 "burgers", we only consumed about half of the recipe. But we did eat it on the side as well too. The nutritional information then only includes half of the relish recipe.

Another option for this recipe would be to add goat cheese on top of the cooked "burgers" as well.

Nutritional information:

(per 1 serving, should yield 5 servings): 496 calories, 11.5 grams of fat, 400 mg of sodium, 37.2 mg of cholesterol, 76.8 grams of carbohydrates, 12.5 grams of fiber, 3.37 grams of sugar, 19.6 grams of protein

Enjoy!