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Yesterday was all about my past 4th Of July favorites, but this week is all about some new ones.
Well, at least today is.
To be honest, choosing my 4th of July menu is going to be so hard. There are too many recipes that I want to try out. Nothing old, always something new!
I am still in shock that tomorrow is the first of July. I am both excited and sad at the same time. Excited because I have fun stuff going on this month. Things like the barn hopefully starting to look more like my new home, a trip to Seattle and um…. eating as much mouth-watering, delicious, summery foods that I possibly can. Because that is what I do in the summer. I am addicted to all the fresh produce. I just cannot get enough! Sad because I don’t want summer to end!
I will also be taking over this month as full-time care giver to the now adolescent chicks (yeah my mom actually used that word when describing the chicks newest stage). Actually, I will have to assume my new duties not only for the entire month of July, but for half of August as well! My dad is normally my best bud… and dishwasher, but he’s out of here for a while, so the chicks are up to me … and my not so nearly as helpful brother.
I’m also going to be trying my hardest to design the barn to everything I could ever want it to be. It’s gonna be a busy month, but you know what I realized during my little Florida vacation last week?
I hate not having anything to do. I thought it would be amazing, but I was just plain antsy. The truth is I really like what I do and I like running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Sure little breaks are a HUGE must, and I need to try to do them more, but for the most part I really just like being busy and seeing things get done.
My dad has always said the more you have to do, the more you get done and it is so true.
Anyway, now that we know how my July is going to go, let’s talk about these burgers.
These are for all the vegetarians who still want to have fun and throw a delicious summer BBQ. Now – they are sort of healthy, but then I just had to add the cheese sauce. Oh the cheese sauce. This cheese sauce is worth the splurge. It’s kind of my new favorite burger topping. As are these crispy, baked to perfection, homemade curly fries. Holy crap. You guys. So flippin good. The curly fries alone are reason enough to buy yourself a vegetable spiralizer.
These fries were deemed “best ever” by some seriously tough critics, so you have to trust me on this one.
For some reason I really liked the idea of these burgers being heavy on the black beans… and blue cheese. Oops. No, no, no – the healthy stuff totally cancels out any of the bad stuff. It does. Really!
Plus, my dad and I have decided we prefer bean burgers to beef. I am not saying we can’t love a really good beef burger, but for the most part, we’ve realized we really like the bean burgers. They are so good every time. My mom the bean hater never knew there were beans in these burgers… until I told her… after she had exclaimed how awesome they were.
Again, the buffalo cheese sauce? Yeah, that is really what these burgers are all about. Even if cheese sauce is usually not your thing – try this one! I bet you will think differently. These burger are just a whole new kind of ball game. BBQ them up for the Fourth and you and your guests will see what I am talking about.
Buffalo-Blue Curly Cheese Fry and Crispy Black Bean Burgers.
Servings: 6 BURGERS
Calories Per Serving: 1140 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Fries (Or 1 bag frozen Curly Cut or Shoe String Fries)
- 3 pounds unpeeled russet potatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons seasoned salt or more to your liking
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Burgers
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups black beans mashed
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1/3-1/2 cup buffalo sauce * I used 1/2 cup
- 1 clove garlic grated
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt + peper
- 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese optional
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 of your favorite burger buns toasted
- sliced avocado crumbled blue cheese, chopped green onions, butter lettuce
Buffalo Cheese Sauce
- 1 stick butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/3-1/2 cup Franks red hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a bowl combine the quinoa, mashed black beans, egg, buffalo sauce, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper. Mix well to moisten the ingredients and then mix in the shredded cheddar cheese. Mix well again and form into 5-6 equal burger balls (I made 6). Stuff the blue cheese into the center of each ball and form the mixture around the blue cheese to make round patties. Cover and place in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Using a vegetable spiralizer, spiralize the potatoes into curly cut fries. Then cut the fries into smaller sections. You may also just slice the fires into very thin matchsticks if you do not have a spiralizer. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and drizzle with oil, seasoned salt and pepper. Toss with your hands or two spatulas to evenly coat. Spread onto two baking sheets in one layer. Roast for 10-15 minutes, then toss and roast for 15-20 minutes more. This may take longer depending on how thick your potatoes are spiralized or cut. Mine were very thin (which was SO GOOD), so they cooked quick. You want the potatoes to be deeply golden and crispy on the outside!
- About 15 minutes before the the fries are done, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Grab the burgers and cook until golden and crisp, about five minutes per side. My burgers were not crumbly at all and very easy to flip. Keep warm.
- To make the buffalo cheese sauce heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter, and once it’s melted and bubbly add the flour. Whisk together to create a roux and cook for 1-2 minutes until mixture gets a bit golden in color. Add milk, stir and turn down heat to low. Continue stirring until milk thickens. Add in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Stir in hot sauce and seasoned salt and pepper. Taste and add more hot sauce if desired.
- To assemble the burgers place some lettuce on each toasted burger bun bottom and then add the burger. Add a few avocado slices and then a handful of fries. Spoon the cheese sauce over the fries and sprinkle with blue cheese + green onions. Top with the burger bun. Start eating!
Notes
*To make your own buffalo sauce melt 1 stick (8 tablespoons) (you may use half olive oil or reduce the butter to 4 tablespoons) of unsalted butter. Add 1/2 cup of Franks red hot sauce, 1 teaspoon of seasoned salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix well. *Adapted from my [Crispy Quinoa Burgers | https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/epic-crispy-quinoa-burgers-topped-sweet-potato-fries-beer-caramelized-onions-gruyere/] and my [Black Bean Mojo Burgers | https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/cuban-black-bean-rice-mojo-burgers-slaw-garlic-tostones/].
Made even better if enjoy al fresco. Or at least I think so, but I love eating eating outside in the summertime!
Hello! I made these burgers tonight but they didn’t stick together. Question – did you measure 1.5 cups beans and then mash them? Or they should measure 1.5 cups after being mashed? Wondering if that could be my issue. Love your recipes – thanks!!!
Hey Kellie,
So sorry to hear this, I measured the beans and then mashed them. I hope this helps! xTieghan
Do you rinse the black beans?
Hey Allison,
Yes, that is great to do:) I hope you enjoy the recipe! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Can you cook these burgers on the BBQ?
Hi Jessica,
Absolutely! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Love to make these. Would want to make the patties kidfriendly. With what could I replace the hot sauce? Ketchup?
Btw we so much enjoyed the quinoa burger yesterday!
Hi Nienke,
I would just leave the buffalo sauce out. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I’ve made these burgers twice and they were delicious both times. I made beef patties just to save time. One time I used frozen curly fries and the other I made matchstick fries. A winner every time!
Thank you so much Liz!! I am so glad this one turned out so well for you!! xTieghan
My husband and I are so often ‘meat’ focused but I saved this recipe anyway. We had some vegetarian friends over for dinner and this was prime opportunity to convince the husband to try something new. As he says ‘hamburger’ has meat in the name!… yeah okay Haha! Not only did my friends rave about this for days, but I brought the extra to work and had coworkers swooning over the smells, swearing it at looked like I ordered from a restaurant. I cooked these in two pans at the same time. One burner gets hot faster than the second and one batch stayed together perfectly (hotter pan) and the other not so much. If you have issue, just stick with it (no pun intended). We used extra sauce for dipping tortilla chips. Delicious on its own! I kinda felt like the blue cheese in the center got a little lost so I might skip it next time. Making again!!
Hi Sabrina! Thank you for trying this! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you and your husband! xTieghan
Tieghan, the burgers were delicious but did not hold together as well as yours. Do you think I should add another egg next time? Or more quinoa?
Hi there! Try adding an additional egg. I think that should help them hold better for you. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
Oh my! I’ve got to make this burger!!
Yes!! I hope you love this!
There is cream cheese in the ingredient list for the cheese sauce but then not mentioned in the directions. I assume it goes in with the cheddar cheese? Or is it not an ingredient?
Hi Linda! Recipe is fixed, it goes in with the cheddar cheese. So sorry for the confusion. Hope you love this!
How do you make such great curly q fries? I have the sprilizer but they just seem to lay flat and curly not perfectly bouncy Arby’s style like Yours.
Hey Marci, I really do not know. Maybe I just got lucky?
So I am of no help!
Black burghers in Japanese restaurants «Burger King» – http://allfreefoto.ru/6660-chernyie-byurgeryi.html
I’ve made these twice and they fell apart both times. There were delicious, but didn’t stay together. Any idea why?
Hey Jeremy,
that is really weird. I never have problems with these falling apart. Are you using all the ingredients? If so, I would try one, place them in the fridge for 30 minutes before cooking and two, making sure that you cook the first side completely before flipping.
Let me know if you have any more questions and sorry for the trouble!
This was going to be my question as well! I’ve also made them twice.
The first time, I salted the water when I cooked the beans so they were a little too hard to mash properly and I thought that was the problem. Unfortunately, second time the same thing, even though I skipped salting the bean water and cooked the beans a little longer to make sure they were really soft.
I was certain that the problem was the beans the first time, so it was super disappointing to have that happen again the second time. Making the patties thinner seemed to help some, as did cooking them for a bit longer on a lower heat. Also, on the second batch, the last ones we made seemed to be less crumbly, maybe because some of the liquid evaporated out while the mix was sitting?
Will definitely try chilling the mix next time, though, because these are too delicious (even when crumbly) not to keep trying. On the bright side, the crumbly bits that won’t stay on a sandwich work great as a next-day salad-topping.
really must make the burgers. by buffalo sauce do you mean a buffalo wing sauce? thanks
Hey Jill! Yup, I mean buffalo wing sauce. I make mine by adding equal amounts melted butter or oil with equal amounts hot sauce + a dash of seasoned salt.
Hope you love these! 🙂
Can anybody help me, is the quinoa cooked? I love the recipes from this blog, they always look and taste so good! =) Good Job!
Hey Denise! Thanks so much! This recipe calls for already cooked quinoa. Please let me know if you have anymore questions and I hope you love these burgers!
Made these a few nights ago and I made your samosas with the peach jalepeno chutney yesterday. Both were excellent recipes. I made some mac and cheese with my left over cheese sauce. I modified the samosa filling with eggplant and bell pepper since I can’t eat carrots or corn and they were awesome! I’m addicted to the chutney! Every time I pass the fridge I have to have a bite. Love your blog!!
Aww!! Yeah! Thanks so much and I am so excited you liked my recipes. Thanks Lindsay!