Give Burgers A Protein Boost By Adding One Canned Ingredient To Ground Beef

When you need protein to help support your body after a workout or to keep you satiated throughout the day, you can reach for a number of foods, but we'd venture that there isn't a tastier option than a hamburger or cheeseburger. There are plenty of fast food options that are positively awash in the macronutrient, but cooking at home gives you far more control. Now, ground beef is obviously chock-full of protein, with anywhere from 16 to 24 grams per 4-ounce serving, but if you have a serious goal you need to meet before EOD, there is a canned ingredient that is probably lurking in your pantry (and if it isn't, it should be) that can help push you over the edge. It's beans!

Depending on the type of bean you use, a half-cup typically contains between 7 and 9 grams of protein that you can add to your meat mixture, and ultimately, black beans would be our first choice. Not only are they closest in color to a perfectly grilled burger, but they're surprisingly meaty. When they're mashed and mixed in with the ground beef, they blend right in, and their mild flavor means they take on whatever seasonings you include without drawing attention to themselves (oh, and there's the added bonus that, in addition to the extra protein, they're also a high-fiber food). By the way, if you don't have black beans on hand, you can absolutely use pinto, cannellini, or even red kidney beans.

Canned beans are often packed in a gooey liquid that consists of the starches and other substances that seep out of the beans, mixed with water and sometimes a bit of salt. As such, they are too wet straight out of the can to use in your burger mixture, so you should drain them and then dry them as much as you can (otherwise, your patties could be a soggy mess). You can even help the process by wicking as much moisture out of them as possible, making for a much more desirable texture, by placing them in a single layer on a baking sheet and popping them in the oven for a few minutes.

Mashing the beans by hand before adding them to the ground beef will always be preferable to the evisceration they'd receive in a food processor. Taking a potato masher (or you could use your meat chopper from the Dollar Tree) to the beans produces a variety of different shapes, which is useful not just for aesthetic purposes (the irregularities in the beans mimic the natural lumps that form when burger patties cook), but also for a more satisfyingly hearty bite.

Now, beans and ground beef alone do not a burger patty make; you may want to include some binders to help hold everything together. This might be as simple as an egg or two and breadcrumbs — which type of breadcrumbs is totally up to you, because typical fine-textured crumbs will work, as will panko — plus a condiment of your choice, like ketchup, mustard, or even tangy barbecue sauce.