Normally, I’ll admit, I blanch at the thought of making a veggie burger from scratch. Most recipes seem to call for 37 different vegetables, all diced just so, not to mention the sixteen other ingredients that they’ve never even heard of at the mainstream grocery store. Plus all that chopping and cooking and stirring takes an eternity, throughout which you are only growing hungrier by the minute. Then, after all that labor, well, most veggie burgers are kind of boring.

Eh, no thanks. My time would be much better spent shelling beans.

But that’s not this recipe. This recipe requires just one bowl, one skillet, and almost no chopping, which means you can stand around and sip Zinfandel (red, but that goes without saying I hope) while you wait for the burgers to crisp up in the pan. The finished burger has enough flavor and heat to keep Emeril hopping. And since the bread dough is in your refrigerator, just waiting to be shaped and baked, and the harissa was made last week, you just might have time to catch up on your TiVo.

A word on beans. I’ve used the miscellaneous black beauties from my garden, a mix and match of Black Valentines and Cherokee Trail of Tears and whatever else might have reverted to black over the course of the summer. You probably don’t have those, but don’t fret. The black beans from your own garden will work just fine. None left, you say? You can even use beans from a can (just don’t tell Mark Bittman). Whichever route you go, black beans are the ideal beans for burgers because of their rich, creamy but not-too-moist texture as well as their smoky, chocolatey undertones.

If you use canned beans or otherwise end up with too much liquid in your burger mix then you’ll need to add some flour. The problem is that flour tastes like, well, flour.  To avoid pastiness,  place a cup and a half of flour in a bowl. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a dash of salt and black pepper. Stir well, and then use this reserved flour to add body as you’re shaping your black bean burgers if they’re insisting on being free-form. The sticklers and mathematicians among you might point out that we’ve now moved into two-bowl territory. Technically I suppose. (The flour bowl is not really dirty. Just wipe it clean with a napkin…).

The Recipe:

Black Bean Harissa Burgers

1 large shallot, finely diced
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 cups cooked black Valentine beans (about 2 14-ounce cans of black beans
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon harissa paste
2 teaspoons ground cumin seed (or cumin powder)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne or Aleppo pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
3 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil for pan frying

6 Five-Minute Buns
Sour cream, goat cheese, avocado and onion slices for garnish

Dice onion and mince garlic and set aside for ten minutes (this allows the allicin to be released and lets it hold up against cooking heat).

In a large skillet, heat ½ tablespoon of the oil and lightly sauté the garlic and onion on medium-low heat just until translucent, about five minutes.

In a food processor, pulse 1 ½ cups of the beans, the cooked garlic and shallot, mayonnaise, bread crumbs, harissa, cumin, paprika, cayenne, cinnamon, salt and pepper until a rough puree forms, scraping down sides once or twice. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in the remaining beans, cilantro and parsley. Form mixture into patties (it will make four rather large burgers or six girl-sized ones), coating hands with the seasoned flour mixture and adding as necessary.

Heat remaining oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Place patties in skillet and cook until the outsides are crisp, about four minutes on each side. Serve on the buns and garnish with sour cream, goat cheese, avocados and onion slices. If you like, use more harissa as a condiment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.