Spicy Black Bean Burgers with Avocado Aoli

Muy Caliente! Delicioso! Even your carnivorous friends will devour these!

Ingredients:

2 cans of black beans (O)
1 can of chick peas (also called garbanzo beans)
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1 medium yellow onion
2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic, diced
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (you can use cayenne instead if you prefer it's heat)
1 cup of quick oats

 Directions:

Drain all the beans separately and set them aside while you prepare the other ingredients. Use a food processor to grind the quick oats into a coarse powder. This will only take a few seconds. Place the ground oats in a mixing bowl until the remaining ingredients are prepared. 

Add one tablespoon of olive oil to a pan over medium heat and saute both the onion and garlic until the onion becomes a soft gold in color. Add the second tablespoon of olive oil and all the spices. Mix thoroughly and remove from heat.

Now add 1 1/2 cup of the black beans and 1/2 cup of chick peas to the onion mixture. Stir gently until all the ingredient flavors blend.

Add all of the bean and onion mixture to your food processor and grind until smooth. Pour into the mixing bowl holding the ground oats. Now add the remaining black beans, frozen peas, and frozen corn. Use your hands like you would to mix meatloaf and fold all ingredients until combined. It should have a meatloaf-like texture.

Shape your the mixture into burgers and prepare as you would a regular beef burger. These burgers are great on the grill, but a trick for helping them to keep together well on a grill is to freeze them while you wait for your grill to heat. They'll hold their shape nicely if you do.

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Avocado Aoli

My spicy black bean burgers are good all on their own, but when you add my vegan avocado aoli they kick up a notch to awesome!

Ingredients:

1 avocado, cored and removed from skin

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper

dash of salt

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until the avocado is smooth and creamy.

Smear on your burger and enjoy!