Alina's Chipotle Caramelized Onions and Guac on a Black Bean Throne

Last week Marissa made black bean veggie burgers, and they were quite yummy. I love making black bean burgers, so I decided to whip up some of my own. To spice it up, I added guacamole (healthy fat=good) and caramelized chipotle onion-- and when I say spice it up, I mean it. On their own, these onions were sizzling, but I didn't think they were unbearable on the burger because the guac helped mellow them out. Marissa told me they thought the burgers were delicious but the onions were too spicy, so if you don't like spice be wary!

The chipotle caramelized onion recipe comes from Kevin over at one of my favorite food blogs, Closet Cooking. Many of his recipes aren't particularly healthy, but they are always very creative. To be honest, this was just an excuse to try one of his delicious looking recipes.

The burger recipe is flexible, so I often just throw in whatever I'm feeling that day. This time I tried to make it in the "typical" way, but that's like telling the wind which way to blow. It just has to happen naturally. So if you try this recipe, don't be afraid to let your belly lead you.

Approximate cost: $8. Makes 6 servings. 361 calories per serving.

Prep time: 25 minutes Total time: 55 minutes

Black Bean Burgers

• 2 cans of black beans, strained
• 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour
• 1 splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tbsp of breadcrumbs (optional, but I think this makes them a little easier to form into patties)
• 1 small onion
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp burger seasoning (I used a pre-bought mix, but you can mix up your own... Google it, or try this recipe)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 splash of lemon juice
• 2 avocados
• 1 tomato
• lemon juice to taste (for the guac)
• salt and pepper to taste (for the guac)
• 6 whole wheat buns

Chipotle Caramelized Onions

• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups onion, sliced
• 1/2 chipotle chili in adobo, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I didn't have any, so substituted a little red wine vinegar with a pinch of brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup water

I started the chipotle caramelized onions first. This was simple-- chop the onions and let it sizzle, covered, with the other ingredients for 50 minutes. Here's what it looked like when I first threw it on the stove:

Here's what it looked like after 50 minutes:

You can see it cooked down quite a bit.

I followed Kevin's recipe from Closet Cooking exactly. My advice is to heed his advice to "add... more water as needed."

While those are cooking, start the burgers. The first step is to mash, mash, mash the beans. I find doing this with a fork throws me back to the days I worked at Coldstone Creamery and my wrists were always sore from icecreamscoopitis [definition: A medical term for a wrist condition stemming from excessive scooping of ice cream], so to avoid bringing back past ailments I've developed two alternative mashing methods.

The easiest method is to pulverize them using a potato masher. Let me demonstrate:

See how happy I am? That's because it's eeeeaasy.

I will avoid doing dishes at any cost, so if the potato masher is dirty, my backup method (which also works pretty well) is to lay a large square of wax paper over the beans and grind my fist into it. Allow me to demonstrate:

After all that fun mashing, throw in the onions, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, flour, breadcrumbs and seasonings. Mix it all up.

Lightly spray a skillet or griddle or whatever you decide to use with cooking spray, form the beans into patties, drop them on the skillet, and cook them for about 5 minutes on each side.

Forming them into patties is tough! They stick to your hands like crazy. Once while making these I again thought back to my days working at Coldstone. We used to dip our ice cream scoops into water to keep the ice cream from sticking. Why not do the same with my patties? I keep a bowl of water handy and dip my hands in it between patties. The patties are much easier to work with that way because the beans don't stick to your hands. See how messy it can be?

To make the guacamole just gut and seed the avocado, mash the avocado meat, and add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Simplicity is okay sometimes.

Assemble in the following order:

1. Lower bun
2. Black bean burger
3. Guac
4. Tomato slice(s)
5. Chipotle caramelized onions
6. The bun lid




I like this order because the guac is sandwiched between other stuff, so it doesn't make the bun soggy.

Chow down!

Adam’s taste rating: 4 ladles
Brad’s taste rating: 3 ladles
Healthy rating: 4 ladles
Ease of prep rating: 4 ladles
Overall average: 3.75 ladles