My favorite new recipe from the blogs: black bean burgers

Welcome to an occasional series where I share a great new recipe I've tried recently.

This week I finally tried The Non-Consumer Advocate's black bean burgers. Katy's blog is my absolute favorite, and this recipe didn't let me down. In fact, I was probably a little too excited about it, in the sense that "it's just a recipe, after all." But I don't mind being a geek, and sharing my geekiness with you all.

These "burgers" are delicious, easy, and incredibly cheap. We are big fans of a variety of veggie burgers in this house, we eat them several times a week for lunch. Those pre-packaged burgers cost $3 or $4 a box for 4 patties, which is fine. But these cost pennies! As an added bonus, there's no packaging to throw away.

Thanks to the great advice and tips from my readers, I felt confident to delve into the mysterious world of cooking dried beans this week. First, I soaked and cooked a bag of black beans, which cost about a dollar. I could buy them even cheaper in bulk. I cooked them in the crock pot and then added about half the beans to a skillet with sauteed onions and garlic, and added spices and salsa. We ate those delicious beans with mushroom quesadillas, and had some left over for burritos later in the week.

Then I used the other half of the beans, which was just enough for Katy's recipe, to make the black bean burgers. It took maybe 10 minutes to make the patties, and the best part was that there were 6 left over to freeze for lunches and snacks.

Black beans are my new favorite thing to cook. And they sure are worth a dollar. Do you have any recipes for homemade veggie burgers? I used to buy a mix that you shaped into balls and fried before I started buying the convenient packaged kind. Please share your tips and ideas in the Comments section.