Black Bean BBQ Steak Burger

If you are on an endless quest for a big hearty, grillable burger, your search is over! This BBQ Steak Burger is big, bold and up to your grill master's task. Step aside meat, these veg burgers are taking over!

Ingredients

Setup

2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon water
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cups whole rolled oats
3 cups -OR- 2 14oz cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 ripe avocado
1 1/2 tablespoons steak seasoning (I like Penzy's Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning)
3/4 tablespoon BBQ seasoning (I like Penzy's Barbecue of the Americas)
1/2 tablespoon of both onion powder and garlic powder
heavy pinch of both sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions

Combine the flax and water in a small bowl, stir well and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes until it thickens up.

To a hot pan, add the onion. Bring the heat down to medium and stir often. Add a tablespoon of water as needed if it begins to stick. When they begin to caramelize, transfer to a plate and set aside. (This is an oil-free, dry saute.)

Add the oats to a food processor and pulse 3 times. Add the beans, onion and flax mixture and pulse a few more times until well integrated, but not pasty. You want to see some of the oats and beans in tact. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and add the tomato paste, avocado and spices.

Mix very well with your hands. Taste the mix and adjust for flavor. The mix should be very thick, almost a little tough to massage with your hands -that's good.

Cover bowl and refrigerate 2-3 hours to overnight.

Patty up the burgers into 8 patties measured about 2 1/2" round and 3/4" thick. With your thumb, carefully push a small divot in the middle of each burger, this will help them warm all the way through.

There are 3 ways you can prepare these:

1. Preheat oven to 375- degrees F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 22 minutes

2. Pre-heat a large skillet and cook on thee stove top

3. Fire up the grill and cook those babies outside (my favorite!)

Tip - When making burgers you need 2 things to ensure you have great grillable patties that don't fall apart:

A. The use of at least 2 binders. In this one I've used three: mashed beans, oats and 2 flax "eggs".

B. Chill the mix as the temperature change helps the burgers fuse a little more.

Here's what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had to say about the burger.

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