Black Bean Veggie Burger Mix

Fantastic veggie burgers! I'll eat meat-based burgers, but definitely as a fairly infrequent guilty pleasure. I've always liked veggie burgers, because then it's the burger experience minus the guilt, and I just enjoy the taste of them. I think these veggie burgers are in my top three faves (in the company of Dr. Praeger's California Veggie burgers and Cheesecake Factory's version). I used short-grain brown rice in this (the ingredient list says jasmine rice, but the instructions say brown rice). The seasonings might seem like a lot when they're being added, but I thought they were perfect in the finished product. These do have a little bit of a spice kick from the chili powder, but not too bad (much less so than your average bowl of chili). I found the mixture to be a litte too squishy once fully assembled, so I added in approximately 1/2 cup additional breadcrumbs to give these more body. I did add one can of corn kernels, drained and patted dry -- the more, the merrier when it comes to veggies! I didn't measure the mixture while I was forming the patties, just kind of eyeballed them, but I ended up with 12 good-sized thick patties. I cooked them on the stovetop using my ridged grill pan, which I misted with olive oil before frying. Even with the extra breadcrumbs, the burgers were still pretty delicate when raw. I had the best luck when I added the patties to the hot pan, then left them alone for about 6 or 7 minutes before flipping them. They're still far softer than meat-based burgers once cooked, but I suppose that us veggie burger eaters are used to that. Because of the mashed black beans in these, the fully cooked burgers might appear a bit charred, but no worries -- they don't taste burnt. DH is kind of a chicken about new and different foods, so I'm not sure that I will get him to try these, but I think I might wrap these up and put them in the freezer so can take them out and bring them to work for dinner as needed. I actually enjoyed one for dinner tonight, done up with Pepperidge Farm sliced bread, ketchup, pickles, sliced tomato, lettuce and Havarti cheese. Very happy with these, thanks for posting! Made for PAC Spring 2014

Great flavors but will need to add more rice, breadcrumbs or oats to keep them from falling apart.<br/>Loved the Mexican flare and did add Mexican oregano.

Too many unnecessary steps for a quick weeknight meal, so after smashing beans, I just mixed everything together. Also, I needed to add 1/4 more rice/oats/crumbs so they wouldn't fall apart. I'm on a mission to feed my meat loving family less meat and they LOVED them. My 9 yr old, added a dollop of sour cream to temper the spice. Sautéed in butter and served salsa and salad on the side.