This recipe is a fine example of a plant-based butter bean burger or patty that is inexpensive, super easy, and high in protein.
I did the maths and it cost me about UK 23p (US: 30 cents) to make one burger. This was an overly generous calculation too, based on the price of cans of beans. If you batch cook beans from scratch, then it works out even cheaper.
I decided to work out the pricing because ‘concern of cost’ is often a barrier for those considering eating plant-based. However, it needn’t be, since it turns out that it can be a lot cheaper to eat plant-based foods when compared to their meat and dairy alternatives.
Butter Bean Burgers are an excellent way to get a good hit of protein.
“So, where do you get your protein from on a plant-based diet?” After enjoying a vegan diet for over 25 years, it would be fair to say that I’ve heard that question a few times.
Protein isn’t really an issue, as it’s easily obtainable by eating a balanced plant-based diet. That said, it can be nice to know where you can get a high hit of the stuff if you are into muscle building, endurance training, require growth/repair in any way or just want to rest easy, knowing that you are getting enough protein.
To put protein into perspective, just look at an elephant or hippo. They are plant-based eaters. Most of us couldn’t imagine walking up to a hippo ‘hey dude, where d’ya get your protein from?’ The truth is that these creatures get enough protein to build all of that muscle mass just from plants.
Beans offer a high hit of protein and can be an excellent nutrition source to add to a mixed, healthy diet.
Super easy to make! You’ll be pleased to hear that these burgers couldn’t be easier to make. Actually, if you wanted to make them even easier, like RIDICULOUSLY easy, then leave out the onion and add onion powder instead.
But basically, they’re very easy.
Butter Bean Alternative? Can you use any bean instead?
If you don’t have butter beans then substitute for canelleni, lima, navy, haricot, kidney beans – whatever you have available should work just fine.
Vegan Butter Bean Burgers
An easy, inexpensive, high protein vegan butter bean burger recipe. You can swap out the butter beans for any bean if you have others that need using up instead.
Ingredients
- 1 large red onion
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 500g Butter beans (2 cans drained)
- ½ to 1 inch cubed fresh ginger
- 1 heaped teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- Big twist black pepper
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree
Instructions
- Chop the onion into small pieces.
- Saute the onion in a pan with the coconut oil.
- Finely grate the ginger.
- Add all ingredients together and blend in a food processor, or mash, until you get a squishable blend.
- Shape firmly into 8 patties.
- Place under the grill until tanned on each side. This should take about 7 minutes on each side. Take care when turning over as they can be a little fragile until fully cooked. Alternatively fry in a pan with oil, bake in the over or place on a barbecue until cooked.
- They serve well hot or cold and go nicely with a sauce. You can also freeze these before cooking (allow to defrost first unless baking).
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If you are looking for more high protein meals like this butter bean burger
then check out my main meals section here:
Nutritious Plant-Based Meal Ideas at Kind Earth
I made these and they tasted amazing! However, the texture of mine were not as firm as yours, and were quite wet when coming out of the processor. The consistency of thick pudding and they stuck to my hands greatly. I wonder why this is? Should I have dried the beans off after rinsing thoroughly? I would really like to get a dryer texture and make these again. I would appreciate any suggestions. They were extremely tasty!
Ahhhhh yes it can be a bit claggy. If that is an issue then you can add some flour (any flour) or oats to make it less sticky or to thicken. Definitely good to drain the beans as much as possible. I don’t dry them by hand but I’ll let them sit there until all the water is off.
Glad you found them tasty 🙂
Another option is to try the same recipe but using chickpeas instead of beans. If well drained they are firmer than the butter beans.
Wow, so easy to make and very tasty. I baked mine in the oven. Thanks and I’ll be making these again.