Meatless Monday Lunch Idea: Black Bean Burger Salad

Meatless Mondays is a weekly feature which will showcase some of my hits and probably misses with living a meatless life. Many of you know I stopped eating meat about a year ago for personal reasons. While, I haven’t had any desire to go back to eating meat, it has been a struggle to find healthy foods to eat.

Everywhere you go, meat is the main dish. Since I was new to this lifestyle, it led me to eating unhealthy options. I’m on a path now to cook healthier options at home without meat. While going meatless is a personal choice for me, you can still save money by having one meatless meal a week.

Will you join me on this journey by preparing one meatless dish every week?

Black Bean Burger Salad

What do you do when you have extra black beans? Make Black Bean Burgers. You can see my original version here. I made these again recently and I thought we didn’t have any prepared bread crumbs so instead I used panko, which I was pleased to see when I finally found my bread crumbs at the back of the pantry that the panko had less calories. They Black Bean Burgers tasted just as good with the panko.

We also didn’t have any celery so I left that out too. You can adjust this recipe very easily to fit your own dietary needs or what is in your pantry/fridge.

I cook a batch of Black Bean Burgers at one time so I can use them later. It makes a quick lunch or dinner for me. I do like the frozen Morningstar Black Bean burgers but the homemade ones are much more filling and hearty. Plus, it is much more economical when you make them yourself.

Sometimes I want to skip the bread for obvious calorie count reasons. So I will eat a salad like the one pictured below. I used Romano lettuce, added a bit of fresh spinach leaves, leftover pico, salsa, a sprinkle of cheese, and a cut up Black Bean Burger. This was a super tasty and filling lunch.

One thing you may have noticed in the Black Bean Burger is the egg ingredient. I’m not vegan but I don’t eat eggs plain. I will eat them if they are cooked thoroughly into something and I can’t taste it at all like brownies, cakes, cookies, etc. ;)  In this recipe, I can’t taste the egg so I’m good to go and I leave it in there just because I know I need the health benefits from the egg. As long as I don’t taste it in there, I’m leaving it in. Egg substitutes are costly so I just don’t even want to go there.

Post Dinner Analysis

Delicious! :)

Freezer Friendly

Cook Black Bean Burgers in a batch and freeze for easy cooking at a later date.

If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, you can read more about it at GoVeg.com.