After weeks of holiday celebrations, traveling, and loads of birthdays (mine came with a homemade- by friends- gluten and dairy free chocolate cake, so I had to eat numerous slices of course), I can safely say I’ve eaten my way through December and into January. Overdoing it on cakes and pies, salami, cheese, barbeque, and loading up on carbs for a ski trip, has caught up to me. It’s time to clean out the system. Back to making smoothies for breakfast and something filling and light for lunches at work. No more bacon, eggs, and potatoes every morning on the mountains in Utah.

Starting with lunches for the week, I’ve opted for black bean burgers with a beet and carrot slaw to top it off. I love the protein beans have to offer, and I like the idea of thickening a bean burger up with loads of other goodies. I put together a black bean, brown rice, and mushroom burger. I pressed individual patties into saran wrap and have frozen them to take one at a time to work.

Since all of the ingredients are pre-cooked, it will be fine if you can’t bake these at the office. Microwaving them causes them to fall apart, but the mush is acceptable. I put mine in the toaster oven at work and toasted each side for just a couple of minutes. There is no extra binding ingredient in these, so they are delicate. The one pictured here is on a gluten free crumpet, layered with sauteed spinach and shitaki mushrooms and topped with the beet and carrot slaw. Made a delicious lunch.

Black Bean and Mushroom Burgers
3 cups cooked black beans
1 cup brown rice, cooked
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper, or to taste
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups mushrooms, chopped

Place all of the ingredients, minus the onion and mushrooms, into a large mixing bowl and mix. Saute the onion in a skillet over medium heat until just translucent. Add the mushrooms and turn the heat down to medium-low. When the mushrooms are soft, remove from heat and add to the bean mixture.

With a hand-held blender, pulse the mixture until it is chunky. If you don’t have a hand-held blender, use the food processor and just pulse.

Shape the mixture into balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Press down into patties. Freeze individual patties until ready to use. Do not defrost, place patty in toaster or oven and bake at 400 for 5-8 minutes on each side. Use a spatula to flip the burger and to place atop the bun.