If money is tight and you are lacking inspiration for what to make with what you have left in the cupboard, then give this Mexican Bean Burger recipe a try. Cheap to make, easy to adapt and they are vegan too! All of your favourite Mexican flavours in one delicious burger.
The humble can of beans doesn’t get enough credit in my opinion. It’s a store cupboard essential and one of the cheapest things you can buy in the supermarket. If you are anything like us, you will buy cans of every kind of bean there is, put them at the back of your cupboard and forget about them because you are not sure what to do with them.
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Why should you try it?
- Tasty vegan burger
- Cooks in less than 10 minutes
- Great way to get more veg into your diet
- Easy to adapt with different spices
Step by step
One: Put all of the burger ingredients in to a food processor and blend until the desired consistency. We like some chunks still in our beans, so we don't over process them. If you don't have a food processor then you can mash the beans up by hand and chop everything else really small.
Two: Form the burgers in to 8 patties and put them on a plate and in the fridge for 30 minutes. If the mixture is too wet, then add some more oats and blend again until it is more solid.
Three: Add some oil to a large frying pan and when hot, put the burgers in and cook for 4 minutes each side, gently flipping.
Four: Add some lettuce to the bottom of the bun, then coleslaw, burger and top with Greek yogurt, guacamole and salsa before adding the bun top.
Are these healthy?
Bean burgers are a really healthy burger option as they are packed full of fibre and low in fat too. They are vegan, and we all know the benefits of eating more meat free meals.
We have used cannellini and red kidney beans in this recipe, but you could use a mixture of any plain canned, cooked beans you had. That’s what budget recipes should be about, using what you have! The same goes for the rest of the ingredients in the burgers - use them as a guide.
Feel free to use whatever herbs and spices you have so you don’t have to buy anything extra.
Cooking on the BBQ
These burgers are not the best for cooking on a BBQ grill as they are quite fragile and could fall through grates. You are best off cooking these in a frying pan or baking them in the oven.
What to serve them with
We stacked these burgers high with extras. Not just for added flavour, but for photography purposes of course. But to keep these as a really cheap meal, just stick with the burger, bun and some salad in it. But if you want a stacked bean burger, then our Mexican Coleslaw is the way to go.
We mention our Mexican Coleslaw a lot, and link to it from a lot of other recipes, not only it is JUST THAT GOOD but because there is so much you can do with it. Tacos, salads, enchiladas and NOW burgers!
Sure, coleslaw is going to make a burger a little messy, but isn’t that how a burger should be?
As for what to serve on the side of these burgers, some Garlic Potato Wedges and Grilled Corn with Herb Butter would go down well.
FAQs
Yes, and they are a great easy meal to stock your freezer with, especially if you eat burgers often. Form the burgers in to patties and then put them on a lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer. Freeze for a couple of hours and then you can stack them, with baking paper between each one, and put them in a bag in the freezer.
Just take out as many as you need at a time, defrost them fully and then cook them in the pan. They will keep for about a 2 months in the freezer.
Extra Tips
- We have used cannellini and red kidney beans in this recipe, but you could use a mixture of any plain canned, cooked beans you had.
- Not a fan of Mexican spices? Use any herb blend you like to flavour these burgers differently.
- If you want a low carb burger, then wrap these in a giant lettuce leaf and save yourself a bun.
- You can bake these in the oven, but they won't have a crispy outside.
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Recipe
Mexican Bean Burger
Ingredients
For the burgers:
- 400 g cannellini beans drained
- 400 g red kidney beans drained
- 3 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 1 lime (juice only)
- 25 g fresh coriander (cilantro)
- 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper
- 1 teaspoon each of paprika, mild chilli powder and cumin
- 60 g rolled oats
For Serving:
- 8 Burger buns
- 40 g rocket lettuce (arugula)
- 8 portions of Mexican coleslaw
- 8 tablespoon Greek yogurt
- 8 tablespoon salsa (heaped)
- 8 tablespoon guacamole
Instructions
- Put all of the burger ingredients in to a food processor and blend to desired consistency. We like some chunks of beans still in ours, so we don’t over process it. If you don’t have a food processor, then you can mash the beans and chop everything else up small and mix it all together.
- Form the burgers in to 8 patties and put on a plate and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. If the mixture is too wet, add more oats and blend again until it is more solid.
- Add some oil to a large frying pan and when hot, put the burgers in. Gently cook for 4 minutes on each side, carefully flipping.
- Add some lettuce to the bottom bun, then some coleslaw, a cooked bean burger and the top with Greek yogurt, guacamole and salsa before serving.
Notes
- We have used cannellini and red kidney beans in this recipe, but you could use a mixture of any canned, cooked beans you have.
- Not a fan of Mexican spices? Use any herb blend you like to flavour these burgers differently.
- If you want a low carb burger, then wrap these in a giant lettuce leaf and save yourself a bun.
- You can bake these in the oven, but they won't have a crispy outside.
Margaret Zordan
These sound great and just what I was looking for, can't wait to to trying them. Do you think they would freeze ok and how long would they keep?