In a world where we can find a lot of veggie burger recipes, the quest most of the time is to find the “One” and among all the options “Which one?”
But “why one?”
I love variety and I appreciate even a subtle character that an ingredient can bring to a combination. That’s why it has always been hard to choose “the one” dish for me. However, this does not mean that there are no divine recipes that would make you feel as it’s “the one” and the only one when you are enjoying them.
That is my quest, I guess, to find the tastes, smells and the moments that would make me feel like I’ve found ambrosia.
Baked Portabella Mushrooms and Black Beans Veggie Burger, with or without the ‘fixings’, is one of those dishes that would make you feel the same. No wonder it’s one of the favorites among my meal plan recipes.
If you wonder what makes this meal special the answer lies in the combination of ingredients. Black bean’s sweet buttery taste is so well-balanced with meaty and salty umami tones that even kids and very strong minded meat lovers would enjoy it. Tested several times…
Although I am a fair believer of playing with recipes and substituting some ingredients with others, I would hold myself for this recipe and try to act tamed, well mostly. The secret weapon in this recipe is the portabella mushroom: It’s meaty texture as well as deep gamy taste makes it almost irreplaceable for these burgers.
Despite to the very common option of frying the burgers, I chose the baking path not for health concerns but mostly for convenience. The use of oven instead of stove top would give you the flexibility of either cooking another meal or spending some time with your kids or just some extra time that you don’t need to tend the burgers in the skillet.
The oven time starts with baking, rather to say with drying the mushrooms. You might already know that mushrooms are like little sponges. With almost 90% of their weight being water, they add significant amount of liquid to the dish. For recipes where consistency of the mixture is crucial, we need to control the liquid content of the mushrooms. That’s what first baking brings into the dish.
The second ingredient that I would not substitute is the type of the cheese in the recipe. Parmesan or a good quality old cheddar does not only add the saltiness to the dish but also brings the other umami component, the deep flavor that would make us really enjoy the taste.
Although I prefer to use a food processor in order to chop the ingredients to desired size and to blend well, it’s not a must for the recipe. The idea is just making them small enough to cook evenly but at the same time big enough to have a bite. We are not after a mashed consistency, but like pea size components combined with the magic of cheese and eggs.
The size of the burger indicated in the recipe is to give an idea about the serving sizes. You can shape as big or as small as you’d like. If you are aiming for sliders just go with smaller sizes of 1/4 cup or for big burger buns go for 1/2 cup mixture. Whatever you choose, try to stick to the size as baking and cooking time would be different for each case. While for 1/4 cup sized burgers I’d suggest baking 12 min per side, 18 minutes per side would give a better outcome for 1/2 cup sizes.
Baked Portabella Mushroom and Black Bean Veggie Burger
The perfect blend of sweet buttery taste of beans with meaty and salty umami tones of portabella mushrooms and parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
- 3 large Portabella mushrooms
- 540ml can of Black beans
- 1 small head of Broccoli
- 1 big Carrot, grated
- 1/4 of large Red onion, minced
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 4 large Eggs
- 1 cup Panko
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne
- 1 tsp Thyme, fresh or dried
- 1 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 cup Parmesan or Old Cheddar cheese
- Drizzle of Olive oil
Directions
- Step 1 Warm the oven to 400F
- Step 2 Wash the portabella mushrooms in running water and remove the gills. Cut them into 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick steak and bake them in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool down.
- Step 3 Put the portabella mushrooms, black beans and broccoli florets in a food processor and pulse for 4-5 times, until combined.
- Step 4 In a large bowl combine the mixture with grated carrots, minced garlic and onions, panko bread crumbs, grated cheese, eggs and all the ingredients. It’s better if you use your hands but a spoon or a spatula would do the work too.
- Step 5 Shape the mixture in your hands, flatten them into burger shapes. The amount of mixture you would aim for each burger is as the size of a large egg
- Step 6 so you can either use a cookie scoop or a 1/3 cup as a measure. Work with wet hands as this would prevent the mixture to stick to your hands
- Step 7 Place the burgers on a parchment lined baking tray, drizzle each burger with olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes each side and remove them from the oven.
- Step 8 Serve with guacamole and blue cheese sauce or home-made aioli.
The complexity of the meals and the precise description of ingredients can be daunting sometimes, especially when you are trying to come up with a quick fix for a family. So I should admit that this is not one of those recipes. However, it freezes really well so if you take the road to make it, you can freeze half of the batch and enjoy it for another weekday dinner. Just defrost overnight or in the microwave and warm them up in a skillet with a dash of olive oil or butter.
Enjoy!
