Beetroot & Black Bean Burgers

These burgers taste great and give your body a real boost of phytonutrients, protein and phytoestrogens.

Whilst I love many things about these burgers, the main feature I want to highlight are all the prebiotic ingredients - in particular beetroot, black beans, flax seeds, tofu and onions - all feed our beneficial gut microbiota. That means they help our gastrointestinal microbiome to flourish, so important during the perimenopause and menopause years!

If you'd like to learn more about this, then consider joining me at one of my 'What To Eat During Perimenopause & Menopause' workshops, either online or in-person, see details here. 

If you can't eat or don't like some of the ingredients I have popped many swaps in below. Take a look, as these delicious burgers are so versatile. 

If you'd like to see the video making this dish, head to my YouTube channel here.

90g cooked black beans, or other cooked legume such as chickpeas or cannellini beans
90g firm tofu, finely crumbled
2 teaspoons miso paste
Big pinch of chilli flakes or 1 teaspoon chopped jalapeño peppers/chilli 
1 raw egg*
2 tablespoons ground flax/linseed
15g/2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
2 spring onions, finely chopped
90g raw beetroot, freshly grated (note it is important to use raw beet as cooked beetroot makes the burger too wet)
Big pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for cooking with 

In a large bowl add the cooked black beans, and using a fork, break them up a bit.
Add the crumbled tofu, miso paste, egg and ground flax seed. Stir all these ingredients well to blend in the miso paste.
Mix in the pumpkins and cumin seeds, finely chopped spring onions, and finally, grate in the beetroot (you may wish to wear some rubber gloves to grate the beetroot, to prevent your hands staining).
If you have time, allow this mixture to rest for half an hour before cooking. When you are ready to cook the burgers, shape each one into a ball.
For large burgers divide the mixture into 4 balls, for small falafel sized bites use 1 tablespoon of mixture.
Put the olive oil into a large fry pan on medium heat and cook until the burgers have firmed up and cooked all the way through to the center.
This should take approximately:
Little burgers (using 1 tablespoon of raw mixture) - 4 - 5 minutes
Big burgers (using ¼ of the raw mixture ingredients) 10 minutes.

Once cooked, eat them with various toppings, such as - cooked onions, avocado, dollop of natural unsweetened yoghurt, wilted greens, pesto, sauerkraut or kimchi.

The raw mixture can be stored in the fridge for 1 day, or frozen, for later use.

*Vegan swaps: Leave out the egg and add an extra 1 tablespoon of ground flax/linseed. Make sure you leave the mixture to rest for ½ hour or more before cooking.

Swaps:
If you can't tolerate black beans, or other legumes, then try some drained canned lentils, these are usually better tolerated in the gut. 

If you don't like beetroot, then swap for some grated raw sweet potato.

If you don't like or can't tolerate tofu, then leave it out of the recipe. 

If you don't like or can't tolerate flax seed, then grind up some chia seed, and use these instead. The flax or chia help the burger to stick together, whilst also providing protein and prebiotics. 

If our can't tolerate spring onions, you may be ok with the green tops of the spring onions, rather than the white part. 

If you don't like, or can't tolerate chilli, then leave out. 

The miso paste or powder adds a lovely umami flavour to the burgers, but if you don't have this in your kitchen, then use nutritional yeast instead, or simple leave out of the recipe.