INGREDIENTS
1 x 400g can black beans
1 and ¼ cups oats
1 and ¼ cups cooked quinoa
¼ cup flax meal
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp tamari sauce
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp salt
Black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Drain your black beans but don’t wash them through with water as you want to keep them coated in the thick brine from the tin. This will help bind them, but you still need to drain out the brine. However, don’t dry them out too much.
Add them to a large mixing bowl and smoosh up with a sturdy fork. You want to try and mush almost all the beans but don’t over-do it. You want quite a bit of texture left in them.
Now add the rest of your ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Leave aside for 10 minutes to allow your flax meal to set a little and stiffen your mixture up.
You now want to line a baking tray or something with a large, flat surface with some parchment paper and set aside.
You’ll want to be making roughly 8 burgers from these which will serve 4 people.
Flatten your mix down in the bowl and try to make it sit evenly so you can roughly divide the mix into 4 segments. Now spoon out half of one of the segments and mould it in your hands into a ball. Press pretty hard to make sure everything is sticking together nicely and you have an even ball with no cracks.
Now squash that burger ball between your palms to flatten to about1/2 inch thick and lay your parchment paper. Be careful in this process because these burgers do break pretty easily. Repeat this process until you have made 8 burgers.
Now, heat a good non stick pan or skillet on a medium heat.
Add your burgers at about 4 at a time for an average sized pan. You can use a little oil in this process for best results and to stop your burgers drying out or burning too easily, but you don’t have to do this if you would like to keep them as whole foods plant based as possible. Just take extra care to not let them burn if you are not using any oil. You may need a lower heat.
You can gently squash down your burgers even further with a fish slice during the cooking process, depending on how chunky you would like them. Just be very careful if you do this because they easily crack.
Flip your burgers once, but go easy not to break them.
After about 5-6 minutes of cooking on both sides, your sausage burgers are ready to serve. Eat with a bun and chips or as part of a fried breakfast dish.
