Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

I love black bean burgers and I've tried quite a variety of them. What is fun about these burgers are their versatility. Everyone seems to have their own "secret" ingredient and of course their own special way of cooking them.

Some extra add-ins I've tried, which are all delicious btw...

+cinnamon
+curry
+ginger
+peppers (spicy and mild)
+Worcestershire
+miso
+tomato sauce
+quinoa
+rice
+vegan cheese
+salsa
+garlic
+cilantro
+corn
You see..the list goes on forever!

Cooking Methods:

+BBQ!(Seems most popular)
+Oven Baked
+Pan Fryed with Olive oil
+BBQ then Oven Baked (The combo, as I refer to it)

What was my secret and method of cooking?

My secret ingredient happens to be rolled oats! Although I shouldn't really claim rolled oats as my own secret ingredient of choice, my mom has been putting rolled oats in burgers ever since I was a kid. This was my first time however pairing it with Black Bean Burgers. My method of cooking was oven baked, still a little to cold to bring out the BBQ.


Black Bean Burgers
1 can of Black Beans
1/2 an med. onion
4 mushrooms (diced)
1/2 cup of oats
1 garlic clove
1 tsp of cumin
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Hot Black Bean Burger Option: Add some diced jalapeno or your favorite hot sauce to the mix!

Rinse the black beans and then put them in a food processor. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend! Once it is a good paste consistency, divide up the batter into 4-6 burgers depending on size. Place on a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 375F oven for 1 hour. Flip half way through cooking time.

Now comes for the toppings...this is endless too! I personally love to top my burger with avocado, tomato, and lettuce!


Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potato fries have become extremely popular around here. I see them in restaurants, in the frozen aisle in grocery stores, and even at some concessions! We really love them in our house and during this season they are super cheap to make yourself.

1 large sweet potato
1 tsp of olive oil
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the sweet potato and then slice into strips length wise. I have this awesome kitchen tool that makes wavy fries, that I have to share it with you. I bought it for 2 dollars at a grocery store, awesome find!


Place fries in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Mix it up and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375F for only 15 minutes. Check on them every 5 minutes to flip over. These little gems can burn quite quickly compared to a regular potato, plus they will not turn out as crispy, but oh my are they ever good!


What is your choice of secret ingredient and special cooking method when making homemade burgers?

What is your favorite french fry? I love homemade types of any kind, whether russet, sweet potato, yam or jicama(raw style) :)

Dinner Time!

This was our dinner tonight! I am so proud of our dinner tonight because it had three dishes, which were all made from living foods! They were all delicious and easy to make.

I found the funkiest recipe for avocados! The woman who posted this is so inventive, which I love. Check it out Avocado Fries! They are buttery with a crunchy coating. I want to try the same "breading" with zucchini. I can't wait!

I made these tonight with her recipe for Raw Nut Burgers.

Three dishes for us is a huge step, we were usually able to make about one dish per meal mostly due to poor planing and time restraints. This leads me to our third dish which was kale chips, sadly I didn't get a great picture of the kale chips on their own yet. The kale chips I made this afternoon. They just have a couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt and grated garlic. I dehydrated them for 4 hours or so.

So lets start off at the beginning. Yesterday I made Ani Phylo's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread, which is always a great bread for burgers and I also like it as a cracker for dipping in soups. This bread took about 4-6 hours to dehydrate, so it is something you could do the same day as making the burgers :)

The raw nut burger was one of the best raw burgers I have tried. It's meaty, spicy and fast to make! All the other raw burgers I have made take a long time to dehydrate, where as I left this burger on for about 30minutes and it was good to eat! I should note that I didn't have a full cup of walnuts, so I added what I had plus some almonds. It worked wonderfully. The recipe made 4 patties.

Then I added all the fixings! Tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, and red pepper were all in the mix! So good, however after making it i thought "how am i going to eat this?" I went in fork and knife at first, which works well. Then I tried eating it with my hands which was a little messy, but way more fun!

I am so full now :( I couldn't help but eat to much, this was way to good. We have left overs too, which is going to be in both our lunches tomorrow. Go have fun with your food, I know we enjoyed tonight's dinner. We were both so excited and giddy to be making such creative, fun dishes that tasted delicious :)

~Maggie