These Black Bean Mole Burgers are something I’ve had in mind for a long time but because the organisation of my recipe ideas leaves a lot to be desired it sadly got forgotten about.
I have several notebooks filled with my scrawls lying all over my flat, receipts in the bottom of my handbag and rucksack with scribbles on, not to mention the notes on my computer and iphone. I really should figure out some way of getting everything transferred to one place so ideas like this one don’t get abandoned for such a long time, or even worse, altogether. Your suggestions are very welcome!
I don’t know how apparent it is that I love chocolate, but I really really do! It was only a matter of time before it found its way into my main meals as well as desserts, snacks and breakfasts. I also love chili in chocolate so chocolate in chili made a lot of sense to me!
I have had mole before but not for a very long time and just as the classic chili mole rather than burgers. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I’m not referring to those cute little animals that live underground but Mexican mole sauce. I’m supposed to be a linguist but I was embarrasingly calling it “mole” (like the animal) until pretty recently. The correct pronunciation is “mol-ay”.
These burgers might sound like a lot of effort but the sauce is quick to put together and everything for the burgers goes in a food processor which saves on time and washing up. They also freeze well so you can easily make a double batch and get more for your time.
I stuffed the burgers in homemade cornbread buns which worked really well but I’m not 100% satisfied with the recipe just yet (not corny enough!) so I hope you don’t mind me not sharing it. The burgers would be great on any bun with your usual fixings. Extra mole sauce and avocado are essentials though!
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 C Cooked black beans/ 1 can
- 1/4 C Mole sauce (see below)
- 1/3 C Chopped green onions
- 1/4 C Fresh coriander
- 1/2 tsp Ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp Chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 C Rolled oats
- 1/3 C Diced bell pepper (any colour, or a combination)
- 1/2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Medium onion, diced
- 1 Clove of garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp Mild chili powder
- 1 Tbsp Coconut sugar
- 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Chipotle chili powder
- 1/16 tsp Ground cloves
- 1/2 400g/14oz Can of chopped tomatoes
- 1-1/2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
- 1-1/2 Tbsp Peanut OR Almond butter
- Salt & pepper, to taste
Instructions
- (If baking the burgers, preheat oven to 200C/400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper)
- Make the mole sauce first.
- In a medium-sized pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for approx 5 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic, sugar and spices and continue to cook for a further minute. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook on low for 10-15 minutes. Blend using an immersion blender and set aside.
- For the burgers, in a food processor, blend the black beans, 1/4 C mole sauce, green onions, spices and salt until you have a chunky purée. Pulse in the oats and finally stir through the diced pepper.
- For 4 large burgers, use a 1/3 C measuring cup to divide the mixture into 4 equal portions and flatten into thick patties.
- Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook the burgers for approx 6-8 minutes on each side, or until brown. Alternatively, place the patties on the prepared baking sheet and bake for approx 30 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking.
- Serve burgers topped with the remaining mole sauce and sliced avocado (essentials!) plus your favourite burger toppings- vegan sour cream, sliced tomato, onion, etc.
Notes
These freeze well either after cooking and cooling or pre-cooking. Just lay them on a parchment-lined tray and stick the whole thing in the freezer. When solid, remove them from the tray and store them in a freezer bag. Inspired by Johanna's Tamale Burgers
Have you tried mole?
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And please share how you organise your recipe ideas!
This burger looks awesome and I love the sounds of your mole sauce - never heard of it before! Can’t wait to try both! Pinned 😀
Thanks Ceara. The mole sauce is pretty awesome. I wish I’d made a double batch as I think it would be great to jazz up a simple bowl meal.
When I saw you post this on Instagram, I knew I would love it! This burger looks fantastic and I have never heard of Mole! As I was reading it I was pronouncing it as ‘mole’ and just assumed! I also love the look of those buns and can’t wait for you to have perfected the recipe. Looking forward to trying these. Oh and I bought some Inspiral kale chips the other day and now I think I am hooked! I blame you 😉
Haha, at least it’s a healthy addiction 😉
Glad you like the look of the burgers and that I could teach you something new!
My husband’s mother is Mexican & makes mole, but I have to say I’m not a huge fan! Though, it’s been years since I’ve tried it, & to be honest, it’s usually the sauce to a meat based dish so I avoid, avoid.
I love me a big, juicy veggie burger & this looks so fab-ulous. I especially love the addition of avocado-yum!
And holy cow, where did you get that Green & Black cocoa??? I NEED some of that!
These are definitely big and juicy! Seriously hearty. I wasn’t sure I’d get through a whole one…I managed 😉
Green & Blacks is a UK company so their stuff is all over the place here. You can get it in most supermarkets!
Hi,
when you say they freeze well, does that mean freeze before baking them or after? I’m a bit of a newbie to making my own burgers and the ones I usually make are too yummy and never live long enough to be frozen 😀
Ta!
Sorry I wasn’t clear, I’ll add a note.
I usually freeze them after cooking and cooling as then you can just pull them out to defrost and warm them through in the oven for a few minutes but you can also freeze pre-cooking. Just lay them on a parchment-lined tray and stick the whole thing in the freezer. When solid remove them from the tray and store them in a freezer bag.
Thx for the clarification - I will definitely give them a try, they look lovely !
Ha ha I’m just as bad as you… scribbled notes everywhere including the back of receipts & napkins, tucked in bags, drawers, books. I’m SO disorganized!
LOVE the look of your burger. It’s such a gorgeous colour! I’ve only made mole once before. I loved it, but the others gave it a thumbs down as they didn’t like the taste of chocolate in chilli. Such a shame!
That’s a shame. Perks of cooking for myself mean I don’t have to take into account other people’s tastes!
No organisation tips for me then!
Sounds great! I’ve never tried it but have heard of it and i too didn’t realise it was pronounced mol-ay ….so don’t feel so bad
“mol-ay” does sound more exotic doesn’t it?! Glad you like the look of the recipe.
Wow Emma, muy muy rico! I love mole - especially chocolate mole!
That’s some mouthwatering burger.
Gracias 😉
They turned out so juicy and flavourful!
Yum! Johanna made something similar earlier this year and it’s been on our radar for a while… yours looks delicious!
Yes! Johanna’s “Tamale burgers” were my initial inspiration. I’ll add a link actually.
i’ve never had mole sauce, but it sounds delicious! i love when chocolate is incorporated into savory food. these burgers look delicious!
You have to try it! It’s not for everyone but it’s something I really love.
I have always pronounced it ‘mole’ too! How embarrassing! Mind you, my pronunciation can be as appalling as my recipe idea organisation (I learnt to read young, so developed my own idiosyncratic ways of pronouncing things), so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.
I’m really glad you got to this recipe idea eventually because it looks and sounds amazing. I too love chocolate chilli and figure any excuse to get the flavours together in a main meal is worth embracing.
No recipe organisation tips for me then?!
“Mole” or “mol-ay” it’s delicious either way 😀
Oh my gosh this cracked me up because I do the exact same! Scrap paper, note cards spread all over the computer area, kitchen. I’ve lost SO many good recipes before because I couldn’t find out where I noted the amounts of things and when I try again it never works the same. Oooopsy. These seriously look amazing though, we all love a good veggie burger and all love Mexican so I hope to make these soon
These look fab!!!!
I thought they were 😀
I was JUST thinking about mole bean burgers last night and here you are with these!! Perfect timing.
Crazy! You’ve got to make them! I think even your man might be convinced 😉
These are gorgeous! That includes the bun, even if you weren’t happy with it, so I’m looking forward to maybe seeing a recipe in the future.
Thanks Molly
I’m definitely not going to abandon the bun recipe as it definitely has potential. Stay tuned….
Looks Delicious, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Jeffrey! Glad they appeal
Let me know if you give the recipe a try.
Yum. These look fantastic. Definitely on my meal planner for next week. As for the bun recipe, share, share away. I tried, foolishly, to buy baps/ buns for burgers at my local supermarket, and despite the health labelling of ‘wholemeal” etc etc, could not get past all the preservatives/ flour improvers listed on the packet, so am eating my burgers au naturel. A good bun recipe would be hugely appreciated.
By the way, have I raved enough about your green power burgers and how delicious they are, particularly cold……?
Hope all well with you and that you are restored to full health, and the studies are going well.
Kate
I know the feeling. I don’t know when the last time I bought bread from the supermarket was. All those preservatives and unknown ingredients scare me! I occasionally buy the Everfresh sprouted spelt bread or Biona’s millet bread but they’re very dense, not what I always want. I need to figure out how to make a good tortilla wrap too…
I’m so pleased you like the green power burgers! I haven’t tried them cold but when I make them next I will do! Hope you enjoy the Black Bean Mole Burgers just as much.
All going well here. In a good place health-wise but busy busy!
I know what you mean. I buy the Everfresh sprouted wheat bread but it is so dense and quite sweet and not suitable for sandwiches or burgers. The Biona rye bread is quite good but a little heavy. Amaizin make an organic tortilla wrap, and I recently found a tortilla wrap recipe on includingcake.com. Haven’t tried it yet, but might be worth a go as it looks quite easy.
Thanks for the tips. Jo of including cake is a pal of mine actually! Just looked up the recipe and it seems worth a try. I also just remembered about the Mountain Bread Wraps I used to like. I haven’t been seen those recently though. I might have to ask in my local HFS and see if they’ll stock them…
You know, considering how often I make and enjoy black bean burgers, throwing mole into the mix should have been a no-brainer… But I’m glad that you saw that connection first, because now I can simply follow your recipe and reap all the rewards!
Great to hear! I bet all your black bean burgers are yummy anyway, even without the mole
This looks wonderful Emma! And I can’t wait for that burger recipe!
I used to be verrrry disorganized when it came to my recipes too, but I’ve gotten better! My best advice is this: have ONE notebook for recipes and ideas and stick to it. Make it small if you want to keep it in your bad with you. Then, get the app Evernote. It’s good across all Mac products (from Macbook to iPhone and basically it lets you organize notes into notebooks and it is synced across all devices. Your account can even be accessed on the internet from anywhere! Then what I do is I have 4 separate notebooks: blogged recipes (these are ones I have blogged so i transfer all recipes here eventually), recipes for the blog (I’ve tested and photographed these ones too my liking but still need to post them), recipes that need work (recipes I have tried but need tweaking/rephotographing, etc.) and finally: recipe ideas. This keeps all my ideas organized! And what I do is also transfer my ideas/recipes from my handwritten notebook periodically to Evernote so they are all sort of in one place!
Hope that very long winded explanation helped 😉
Thank you SO much Gabby! That sounds like exactly what I need to do. I have heard of Evernote but haven’t looked into it. I better not stay up all note organising now…A project to tackle very soon though. xx
These burgers look really wonderful. That’s such an interesting way to use chocolate. I would like to try one!
I think you’d like them! Hope all well with you 😀
Wow Emma, these burgers look awesome! I too like a little chocolate with my chilli it really enhances the sauce so I just grate in 100% chocolate. AND those bread buns look fantastic already!
Thank you Vicky. Chocolate and chili really are great partners aren’t they?
These look fantastic - I am with you on the wonders of chocolate - too good to keep just for dessert
Thanks for the link - and I need a good mole recipe so will bookmark this as I would love to revisit the concept of mole burgers with home made mole. I also love the look of your burger buns and look forward to reading about them
Thanks for the original inspiration Johanna! I’m glad I finally got to following it up.
This looks gorgeous Emma and super delicious! I have never liked mole, unfortunately, but you make it sound really good and the burger of course looks delicious! I absolutely am in love with chocolate, so maybe I should try it again, as it’s been a few years.
Aw, that’s a shame you’re not into mole. Maybe my burgers will convince you to give it another try
It’s an excuse to eat chocolate after all!
I’m relieved to hear I’m not the only one with recipe ideas all over the place! These are inspired - what a great idea!
Thanks Annie. And it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who’s hugely disorganised when it comes to my recipe ideas!
Wow Emma, those black bean burgers and mole sauce look fantastic! Except that I can’t have any grains just yet. When I get far enough along in my healing I hope to be able to add them back into my diet, but that might be awhile. I’m not sure if there would be any good substitute, I may just have to wait it out. But I’ll be back 😉
Thanks Anastasia! Can you do pseudo-grains like buckwheat and quinoa at all? You could try something similar using my Green Power Burgers as a base recipe. http://coconutandberries.com/2014/01/21/green-power-burgers/
How are you doing on the candida program? Well wishes!
Your mole and burger look amazing! Yum!
Zsu @ Zsu’s Vegan Pantry
Thank you. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out 😀
Hi. Do u think i can subst the rolled oats with another kind of flour. I’m out off.
I wouldn’t recommended subbing another flour as the oats aren’t ground down completely. You could try using cooked brown rice or buckwheat instead to give substance to the burgers. See my Green Power Burgers for more guidance: http://coconutandberries.com/2014/01/21/green-power-burgers/
These were delicious! Even the omnivores loved them! Although kind of a lot of messing up the kitchen for only 4 patties. I will double next time! And also, I was confused. Do you add 1/4 c of the mole sauce to the burger patties or only on top? We just did it on top, which was delicious, but maybe it would be even better with the sauce inside the patties.
Super! Glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comments too- The 1/4 C mole sauce listed is supposed to go in the burgers. Sorry that wasn’t clear. I’m going to take another look at my instructions and make that clearer.
I’ve only had chocolate with a main meal once, in a restaurant, but slightly to my own surprise I LOVED it! Got quite a few avocados sitting around threatening to go off if I don’t eat them immediately, and I quite want to give this recipe a shot. Do you think there’s anything I could sub in for the onion, though, or could they just be omitted? (I have to be very careful with stinky stuff here in my little flat, and since my partner hates onions, I never buy them :p)
I just discovered this recipe and it is really good. Even if you just wanted the mole for another dish - that alone is worth making. I normally avoid anything that says it’s vegan just on pure principle but somehow I ended up at this recipe and I’m definitely adding it to my collection.