I have been eating sweets all week.  And thinking about sweets.  And cooking sweets.  And reading about sweets.  But hey, it’s Valentine’s week, so that’s what you do, right??  Right!  But now it’s time to get serious.  And eat some serious food.  With some serious nutrients.  That’s seriously filling.  And seriously good.  Et voila, le double black bean burger with roasted pineapple and avocado crema.  I served these with the dill pickle fries from Peas and Thank You.  Those are also seriously good.

Double Black Bean Burger with Roasted Pineapple and Avocado Crema

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 inch thick pineapple rings
• 1 zucchini
• 2 15 oz cans black beans
• salt
• 1 t chili powder
• 1/2 t paprika
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1 T canola oil
• 1 T vegan worcestershire sauce
• 4 vegan whole wheat hamburger buns
• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 T veganaise

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.

The zucchinis.

Zucchini-bean mix. I know it looks gross. Looks can be deceiving

2. Spray baking sheet and place pineapple rings on baking sheet and spray tops of rings and sprinkle with salt and roast for 30 minutes until they brown slightly.

3. Rinse and drain beans.

3. Slice zucchini into thin rounds and place in saute pan over med-high heat and cook for 7-10 min stirring occasionally.

4. Once zucchinis have begun to brown, cover with the lid, reduce to low heat and let zucchinis sit for 2-3 min so that the steam will soften them up.

5. Put black beans in a large bowl and smash with a potato masher until the beans are about 70% smashed and some of the beans are still chunky.

6. Once zucchinis are brown and soft, pour them in a medium sized bowl and use a

Cooked patties.

Avocado crema.

potato masher to smash them.

7. Preheat oven to 375.

8. Add zucchinis (including any juice that resulted from the smashing) to beans and stir to combine and use the masher to give it all one good smashin’.  (p.s. you could also do this in the food processor but I think this way is pretty quick and easy).

9. Add 1/2 t salt, and the chili powder, paprika, pepper, canola oil, and worcestershire sauce to the beans and zucchinis and stir to combine.

10. Spray a baking sheet and use your hands to form 8 patties and place them on the baking sheet.

11. Use a spatula to flatten patties.

12. Lightly spray the tops of the patties.

13. Bake for 45 min.

14. Make avocado crema by using a mortar and pestle to smash avocado until it is creamy.

15. Add in veganaise and 1/2 salt and stir to combine.

16. Assemble the burgers on whole wheat patties: 1 patty, then a pineapple ring, another patty, and a big ol’ slathering of the avocado crema on one side of the bun.

17. Enjoy your seriously good burger!