This chipotle lime black bean burger is the perfect texture, easy to make and loaded with sweet citrusy lime and smoky chipotle flavors.
I love beans, but I know that they are not everyone’s cup of tea. And honestly, I am not surprised, because if you aren’t a fan of their taste or texture, you likely haven’t experienced them in a positive light. So the way I typically convince people to enjoy them is to…transform them!
Yes, you can have beans in stews or soups. BUT, have you tried them as a burger, crisped up after baking or enjoyed them in a different form? Burgers, are one of my favorite ways to enjoy beans. By blending it with some flavorful spices and firming it up into patty, it just makes the mighty bean a little more fun to enjoy. Combine some chipotle and lime together into these chipotle black bean burgers and it’s heaven.
Why You’ll Love This Chipotle Black Bean Burger
Full Flavor! These burgers are packed with distinct flavors of lime and chipotle with mild sweetness from the sweet potato.
They hold together well. These veggie burgers aren’t mushy and they won’t fall apart. They have a great texture to them whether you bake or pan fry them.
Easy to customize. These burgers are vegan, gluten-free and can be modified to nut-free with simple modification.
Key Ingredients
- Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce: These peppers can be mild to moderately spicy, so adjust the amount to your preference.
- Black Beans: We’re using canned beans, so make sure you rinse and drain well.
- Lime: Both the juice and zest is needed to help with the lime flavor.
- Oats: Helps o absorb excess moisture in the burger mix.
- Pecans: Since these nuts are soft, they blend really nicely in the burger and help the texture. Walnuts are a good alterative.
- Flax Egg: Helps to maintain the structure of our burger.
How to Make this Chipotle Black Bean Burger
The most important step for these burgers is to bake the beans and the sweet potatoes to help reduce the moisture of both.
Once baked, you add all of your ingredients to a food processor and blend it up until you can mold the mix into burgers.
Either place the patties in the oven to bake and firm up or place in a skillet to pan fry and brown on both sides.
Tips for Making These Black Bean Burger
- Bake your black beans. The secret to making the best texture for your burger is to bake your beans. This helps to firm up the beans and reduce excess moisture to help prevent your burger from being mushy.
- Adjust your burger texture based on your preference. You just need to blend the ingredients until they stick together, after that, additional blending will just adjust how many chunks of vegetable you end up wanting to see. I like some chunks in my burger, but if you don’t, just keep pulsing the mixture until you are happy with the consistency.
- You can bake or pan fry these burgers. I personally liked the texture of this best when it was pan fried. It kept the burger slightly soft (not mushy) in the middle but had a nice firm, crisper edge. If you want it really firm, bake it first and then pan fry to brown it on both sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
The main ingredient in these burgers that help keep them together is the flax egg mixture. This is our replacement for eggs in traditional veggie burger preparation and it provides the glue that keeps the burger from falling apart.
These chipotle black bean burgers are loaded with flavor from the citrusy notes provided from the lime juice and lime zest and mixed perfectly with the smoky flavors of chipotle, which makes each bite absolutely delicious.
After making the veggie burger patties, you can refrigerate them for up to 4-5 days or store and separate the burgers with parchment paper and freeze them for up to 3 months. Just take out and toast them up.
Swaps and Add Ins
- Nut Allergy Alternatives: You can swap the pecans for sunflower seeds as a quick fix.
- Sweet Potato Swap: If you are not a fan of sweet potato, you can also try roasted cauliflower.
- Spice Level: You can make these burgers as spicy as you like by modifying how many chipotle peppers you use. Not a fan of spice? Just use the adobo sauce instead.
- Black Bean Swap: Feel free to swap out for some lentils, white beans or chickpeas.
More Vegan Summer Recipes
- Garlic Chili Chickpea Burgers
- Marinated Chickpea Lentil Salad
- Lemon Orzo Chickpea Salad
- Tahini Pesto Tofu Salad
Chipotle Lime Black Bean Burger
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6 burgers 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This chipotle black bean burger is the perfect texture, easy to make and loaded with sweet citrusy lime and smoky chipotle flavors.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sweet potato, sliced into 1/4 inch coins
- 1, 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 4 tbsp water
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/4 red onion, roughly chopped
- Zest of 1 lime
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F. On a lined baking sheet, add your sweet potato rounds and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Move the sweet potato to one side of the pan and add your black beans then bake for an additional 7-8 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine the flax seeds and water and mix well then set aside. Allow about 5 minutes to gel.
- To a food processor, add in the beans, sweet potato along with all the remaining ingredients including the flax eggs. Pulse the mixture together, scraping down the sides as needed and continue pulsing until the mixture starts to become moldable.
- Divide the mixture into 6 equal sized burger patties. If cooking on a skillet, add a little oil to a pan and cook both sides of the patties for about 4-5 minutes on medium heat until browned. If baking in the oven, place patties on a lined baking tray and spray both sides with a little oil and place in the oven at 375F for 20 minutes, flip and bake for an additional 10 minutes until firm.
Notes
The secret to making the best texture for your burger is to bake your beans. This helps to firm up the beans and reduce excess moisture to help prevent your burger from being mushy.
Adjust your burger texture based on your preference. You just need to blend the ingredients until they stick together, after that, additional blending will just adjust how many chunks of vegetable you end up wanting to see. I like some chunks in my burger, but if you don’t just keep pulsing the mixture until you are happy with the consistency.
If your burger mixture appears very sticky, blend in a 2-3 extra tablespoons of oats to the mix to help absorb some extra moisture.
You can bake or pan fry these burgers. I personally liked the texture of this best when it was pan fried. It kept the burger slightly soft (not mushy) in the middle but had a nice firm, crisper edge. If you want it really firm, bake it first and then pan fry to brown it on both sides.
Keywords: chipotle black bean burgers, black bean burgers, vegan black bean burgers
Did You Try This Recipe?
Then let me know what you thought in the comments below! Share your creations by tagging me on Instagram with the hashtag #plantbasedrdeats
★ Catherine
Deeelicious! Whole family loved them! I followed directions to a T but still ended up adding nearly an extra cup of oats because it was very wet. Pan cooked them.. Turned out great. Still a little soft in middle, crispy on outside. Love the flavor and they didn’t squish out of the buns like every burger I’ve made before. Fairly quick and easy to make.
One question- did you peel the sweet potatoes? I ended up leaving it on and it was fine, but I wasn’t sure what to do.
★★★★★
So sorry that you had to use extra oats, but so happy they turned out great. Thank you so so much for trying this! And I didn’t peel the sweet potatoes for this since it was just blended and just saves an extra step. 🙂