I have craved a black bean and mushrrom burger many times, only to be disappointed that the recipe called for ingredients to have been already roasted, such as a sweet potato, or cooked, such as brown rice; and then you need to let the patty sit in the fridge for half a day. So much for instant gratification!
This veggie burger is meaty and hearty and can use ingredients right now from your pantry. The burger sauce is ridiculously good and can be mixed together while the burgers are cooking.–Pamela Salzman
Black Bean Mushroom Burger FAQs
Yes. Cooked black bean and mushroom burger patties can be frozen for up to a month. Freeze on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and then pop the frozen patties into an airtight container or resealable plastic bag. Thaw and reheat in a warm oven until heated through, or pop them in your air fryer.
You can, but you want to make certain that all of your ingredients are very finely chopped before mixing the patties together.
Black Bean and Mushroom Burgers
Ingredients
For the burgers
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds mixed with 3 tablespoons room-temperature water or 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce or any color miso
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or ketchup
- 1 cup toasted walnuts
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 ounces cremini mushrooms, caps wiped clean and coarsely chopped
- 2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 cups cooked black beans, or 2 (15-ounce | 425-g) cans, drained and rinsed
- Unrefined, cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil, for cooking
For the burger sauce
- 6 tablespoons store-bought or homemade mayonnaise or vegan mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon dill relish
- 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
To serve
- 6 whole wheat hamburger buns or butter lettuce leaves, for serving
- Grilled or pickled onions
- Tomato
- Avocado
- Sautéed mushrooms
- Regular or vegan cheese
- Burger sauce
Instructions
Make the burgers
- In a small bowl, mix the ground flaxseeds and water, or egg, Worcestershire or miso, and vinegar and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the walnuts, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper and process until fine and crumbly, 30 to 90 seconds. Add the flax mixture, mushrooms, and oats. Pulse (do not puree) until a coarse mixture forms, about 1 minute more.
- In a large bowl, dump the beans and quickly smash with a potato masher just until the mixture is coarse and lumpy with some whole beans. Add the walnut mixture and stir to combine.
- Measure 1/2 cup of the bean mixture and form into a patty, then place on a plate. Repeat the procedure with the remaining bean mixture. The patties can be cooked immediately or refrigerated overnight, if you wish.
- In a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons oil. Working in batches, if necessary, cook the patties until heated through and browned on the outside, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining patties, adding more oil as needed.
Make the burger sauce
- In a small bowl whisk together all the sauce ingredients.
Serve
- Serve the burgers stacked on buns or lettuce leaves that you've slathered with sauce and desired accompaniments.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
It’s so nice to have a homemade veggie burger recipe that delivers the goods because store-bought ones never do. These burgers are full of flavor and the recipe is crafted in a way that allows for a lot of personalization of those flavors. Of course you can’t go wrong with cumin, coriander and garlic.
The basics: mushrooms, black beans, oats, combine to provide a solid foundation for the flavors of the recipe, and the “Big Mac” sauce adds a great contrast and tanginess. Also, you have so many topping options that everyone can personalize their own burger.
We sautéed leftover mushrooms and added some spicy giardiniera. Yum!
As far as the recipe itself goes, the only issue was the size. A half cup of burger mix would have made probably 10 burgers, not six, so I added another ounce or so to each one and ended up with six nice sized burgers. One started to break apart when cooking but overall the burgers hold together nicely, so no real problem there. I used the ground flax seed version rather than egg.
On day two, I felt the flavors had really marinated well and the burgers were even better. Definitely putting this recipe in the repertoire.
All the black bean burger recipes I’ve made previously have gone out the window after making this gem. Typically, the issue with black bean burger recipes is that they don’t hold together well, and are usually relegated to becoming black bean crumbles in various dishes and salads. Not these babies. They hold together well and the half cup scoop of the mixture makes a nice size burger that doesn’t shrink.
The 1/2 cup measuring cup made a nice sized patty, and after I pressed together six patties, there was about a third of the half cup mixture left, too small for a patty so I simply added to each of the patties just a little more. The recipe called for 2 to 3 minutes per side, I’d up that to 4 to 5 minutes per side, to give a nice crust on each. It yielded six nice size patties.
The sauce was very good, I used regular mayo. Topped with the special sauce (which resembles a Big Mac special sauce a whole lot) and a few other accompaniments, this burger is one I can’t wait to make again, this time for a group.
I fried up some onion strings (messy but so good) and assembled the burgers: toasted thin sandwich bread, smear of sauce, burger patty, cheese, onion strings, thin bread on top. Wasn’t as high as the photo, because I didn’t add the pickled onions.
Next time I make them I’ll add sliced avocado. All in all, an excellent recipe.
If you are committed to making your own black bean burgers, this is a great way to go. These meatless burgers are very satisfying and flavorful.
I got 8 very big burgers out of this and served them with buns, tomato, cheese, burger sauce. I cooked them a bit longer because I wanted them to develop a crust and hold together.
True confession: this was my first veggie burger ever. And I’ve been around quite some time! What also amazes me is that I eat a largely based plant diet. What took me so long?? I asked myself.
Truthfully, any time I’ve investigated them at the market, I’ve never been impressed with the ingredients listed on the package(s); lots of fillers, sometimes words that were unpronounceable and basically not appealing on any level. At least to me.
These immediately caught my eye. Finally, a trusted source for something that I truly wanted to try. Couple that with enticing my vegan son to dinner and a plan was in place. The ingredients were either on hand or certainly easy to find (not like fenugreek!)
Before forming, I did a small test burger and felt that they needed to be beefed up – insert groan here. More flavorings were needed.
They formed into burgers beautifully, sautéed and maintained their shape without crumbling, browned nicely and LOOKED like a nice burger. And then they tasted NOT like a beef burger, but a delicious veggie burger with lots of flavor, nuance and substance. Enjoyed by all.
I ended up with 7 patties. The burgers were served on sautéed Chinese greens, topped with grilled onion slices and sautéed mushrooms. There was some roasted squash and a side salad. A total of 1 1/2 tbs. of olive oil in a cast iron was used for the sauté process. 3 minutes each side formed a lovely crust.
This is a veggie burger that really delivers! It comes together so quickly and uses mostly pantry ingredients + mushrooms, cooks in a flash and easily retains a true burger shape. The accompanying burger sauce is a lip-smacking, finger-licking delight. The sum of the parts is an extremely tasty and satisfying meatless meal, full of fiber and protein, one that will definitely be in rotation in my home.
Next time I would pulse the mushrooms separately to ensure they remain a coarser chop and then add to the rest of the mix. Because the mushrooms varied in size, they wound up a little finer than I wanted. These amounts gave me 8 burger patties.
And the next day I air-fried a burger to reheat it…perfection!
This mushroom black bean burger recipe was easy to make, had the look of a regular meat burger, and tasted good. The only issue we had was with the texture – it was a little bit mushy. The sauce recipe was also really easy to make and had a very good taste. I could see using the sauce on other things.
I weighed out the burgers to make 6 portions but they were far too large. These were larger than a quarter pounder, I think you could easily get 8 or more out of this recipe. I served them with buns and lettuce.
I’ve made black bean burgers before and I think this one could use more texture. This also might work with leaving some of the walnuts just coarsely chopped – rather than finely chopping them. Finally, it could be that some proportion of the beans needs to be specified to be un-mashed. I didn’t finely mash the beans but there were mashed ones.
These mushroom and black bean burgers are really flavorful and can easily work with a variety of toppings. The combination of the Worcestershire sauce and the vinegar really adds a nice complexity to the taste. It also can easily make 7-8 burgers instead of just 6.
It does take a bit longer than 30 minutes to come together, especially if you’re starting out with raw walnuts that you have to toast like I was, but if you’re not cooking for a large crowd, the leftovers can be frozen and you’ll have a good stash of burgers ready for you the next time you can use a burger on a cold winter day (I’m sure they’d also be great on a grill in warmer climates).
If you are cooking them indoors, I’d recommend using a cast-iron skillet to cook rather than stainless steel, and using a lot of oil. Canola oil seemed to work best, while olive oil made them stick to the pan and burn.
