or patties. Whatever you want to call them. I have yet to eat them in a bun with lettuce and tomato but it just might be good that way. And if you are going to compare them taste for taste with a hamburger, don’t! Unless having a hamburger is not an option for you for whatever reason. This is the recipe that I’ve been making. There are many other ways you could make them. If we were only doing vegetarian right now, I would add an egg to the recipe to help them hold together better.

Mix 1 small can (8 oz) of tomato sauce with 1 cup quick oats.

Mash 1 cup of cooked and drained black beans. I used a mini food chopper.

Saute 1 medium chopped onion and 1/2 cup of fresh chopped mushrooms in olive oil.

Throw the beans, onions/mushrooms and oatmeal/tomato sauce into a bowl. Add seasonings and mix well.

This mixture is a little on the sticky side and doesn’t form patties quite as neatly as I’d like. Drop a pattie into fine bread crumbs.

Coat on both sides and drop into 2 T. olive oil in a frying pan.

Fry until golden on both sides. I made them with and without the bread crumb coating. I preferred the non-coated but my sister preferred the coated.

We have a recipe to make a sauce out of tofu. It is called tofu “mayonnaise” but quite honestly it tastes closer to sour cream than mayonnaise. That is what the white stuff is on the burger pictured below.

I like also to spread the “mayonnaise” over it and then some fresh salsa. Quite tasty once you have gotten used to eating meatless foods. I thought they were better the second day than the first. Maybe for the same reason that we enjoy eating food we have not cooked. Anyone know why?

And one of these days I will post a non-vegan recipe again. I have one for Penne Rustica waiting in the wings. It has shrimp, chicken, cream and cheese in it.

EDITED TO ADD: I think it may be a 6 oz. can of tomato sauce instead of 8 oz!