Black Bean Burgers

Since becoming a vegetarian these puppies have given me a fast food fix when I need it. I developed this recipe myself so if you try it and hate it... break it to me gently. I found some recipes online for this dish but they all pretty much only used black beans and I really wanted my burgers to have veggies in them too. I have adjusted the recipe again and again until I think we finally have a winner. The past few times we have made it just like this and love it. I give you:

Black Bean Burgers ala Ashlee

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 carrot, peeled

1/2 med. zucchini

1/2 large red bell pepper, seeded

(you can use another color bell pepper but red is the best)

1 large slice of onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

worcestershire sauce

ground black pepper

1 egg white

bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pulse beans in food processor 4-5 times until just cut up (you don't want to make a mush here, it's okay if some of the beans are whole even). Transfer to large bowl.

Place the veggies in the food processor and pulse until they are very finely diced (I have a mini processor so I have to do them one veggie at a time in batches... I assume just tossing them all into a regular sized processor at the same time would produce the same results). Add to bowl.
Stir in worcestershire sauce and pepper to taste. Stir in egg white. Stir in enough bread crumbs until you have a good consistency to work with to shape patties (remember this is not meat you are dealing with though... you don't need so much that it handles like hamburger). Shape into patties and place on parchment or baking mat lined cookie sheet. Bake 25 minutes or until cooked through (cooking time will vary according to patty size).

When serving you can use them pretty much as if they were hamburger patties except that I think lettuce would not work well texturally speaking... but tomatoes, pickles and BBQ sauce are a must.

We usually eath these with Oven Fries... which there is not an actual recipe for. You just take potatoes, slice them unpeeled in the shape of french fries, toss them with olive oil, pepper, and freshly grated parmesan cheese and bake on a baking mat in a 425 degree oven.

Yummmm! If you try it leave me a note and tell me what you thought :)