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Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

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Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

A healthy, quick, and easy weeknight dinner recipe for a Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad, smothered in guilt-free avocado Greek yogurt dressing!

We are officially in house limbo.  

Our first house is sold and we’re all moved out.  Side note: you don’t truly realize how much stuff you have until you try moving it.  Jeez.  And our new house, which we are super-ridiculously-beyond-excited to soon call our home, won’t be ready to close for another month or so.  Thankfully my parents have welcomed us with open arms.  And extra thankfully their house is literally 5 minutes from the school where I work. #win

Have I mentioned that the new house has a pool?!  And have I also mentioned that I’m not even close to being in pool-ready shape? At least my current extra-round body type will be highly buoyant.  Glass half full, people.

But it’s time to start eating better.  Making better choices.  And with most of my kitchen gear stored away, it’s time to get creative come dinner time. MorningStar Farms to the rescue.  They make it beyond easy to eat smart and go meatless.

Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

I’m not sure if you’ve checked out your grocery freezer aisle lately, but MorningStar Farms is tearing the place up.  They’ve got like 30+ products at this point, and are always constantly creating and introducing new flavors. Meet the newest members of the MorningStar Farms family:

  • Roasted Garlic and Quinoa Burger
  • Buffalo Chik Patties
  • Parmesan Garlic Wings
  • Mediterranean Chickpea Pizza
  • Baja Black Bean Pizza

But my personal favorite way to get my MorningStar Farms eating on?  Veggie burgers.  All 12 are a great source of protein and can go straight from freezer to grill. And Asheley is totally obsessed with these Spicy Black Bean ones.

Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

Spring is like the one time of year I feel it’s perfectly acceptable to have a salad for dinner.  Not just an appetizer.  Full on main course action.

So I loaded up.  Sautéed peppers, onions, and summer squash.  Pickled jalapenos.  Healthy avocado Greek yogurt dressing.  And the crown jewel?  That spicy black bean burger topped with a fried egg.  

That’s how we do salads in our house. Well, my parents’ house.

Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

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Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

Spicy Black Bean Burger Southwest Salad

★★★★★

4.9 from 16 reviews
  • Yield: 4 1x
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burgers
  • 4 slices pepperjack cheese
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 summer squash, diced
  • Pinch chili powder
  • 4 eggs
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 large head of lettuce (any variety will do), rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • Pickled jalapenos
  • 1 avocado, diced
  • Avocado Greek Yogurt Dressing
  • 1 ripe avocado, mashed
  • ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 lime
  • 1 clove garlic
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Grill Spicy Black Bean Burgers over medium-high heat until heated through, flipping once half way through process. During last 1 minute of cooking, top each burger with a slice of pepperjack cheese.
  2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add red bell pepper, red onion, and summer squash. Season generously with Kosher salt and a pinch of chili powder, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes, until vegetables are softened but still have a little crunch to them.
  3. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat. Once hot (adding a droplet of water to the pan should make it sizzle), crack open eggs and add them, one at a time, into the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cover with a lid. This will help the tops of the whites to set before overcooking the bottom of the eggs. The eggs are done cooking once the whites are just set (the yolk will still be runny).
  4. Divide lettuce among 4 bowls. Top with spicy black bean cheeseburger, sautéed vegetable mixture, pickled jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, diced avocado, fried egg, and drizzle with avocado Greek yogurt dressing. Serve immediately.

Avocado Greek Yogurt Dressing

  1. In a food processor, purée the avocado, Greek yogurt, juice from ½ of the lime, and garlic. Drizzle in olive oil and fully combine. Season with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add the juice from the other ½ lime if needed.

Need more recipe inspiration?  MorningStar Farms has got you covered. Do you have a favorite MorningStar Farms product?  Tell me below and you’ll be automatically entered into a random drawing for a $100 Visa gift card!

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Comments

  1. Tell me about moves Chris!! We did a move 3 yrs ago and still have unopened boxes in our basement :). The truth is that we carry so much stuff we really don’t need. Anyways good luck with settling down in your new house.
    We always have a box of spicy vegetable bean buger in our freezer. Its our life saver on lazy days. The salad looks perfect for this weather. Absolutely loved the dressing!!

    Reply

  2. House limbo! Hope it all goes as smoothly as can be. At least in the interim your commute is a breeze! Topping a salad with a veggie burger is one of my favorite ways to add enough oomph to a salad for dinnertime. This recipe takes it to the next level though – avocado greek yogurt dressing? YUM. My favorite MorningStar Farms product would be their Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers. Delish!

    Reply

  4. i’ve never tried these before but i would love to try the spicy bean patties. We love beans and they are SO healthy for you !:) can’t wait to pick this up next time i go to the grocery store!

    Reply

  10. Chris, I love black bean burgers, but I’ve never tried frozen ones. I’ll have to give them a try. In regard to the house limbo, been there done that. I always say we should move often to keep the clutter/stuff down to a minimum. Our last house limbo was a few years ago and we moved in with my parents. What was meant to be 4 months turned into 8!!! I hope that your house limbo is much shorter and thereby more enjoyable 😉

    Reply

  22. Eeks, we were in house limbo and stayed with my parents for 2 months before we moved into our current house too. That’s awesome that they live so close to work though and that your new house has a pool! Hopefully this time goes by quickly for all of you and you will get to enjoy your new house soon 🙂 This salad is all kinds of incredible! Love the avocado greek yogurt dressing and the veggie burger and fried egg on top sound fantastic!

    Reply

  23. Chris! You know you and Asheley could’ve come up and vacationed in your summer house up here in upstate New York, right? Instead you stay down there and keep working…what’s up with that? I’ve been needing some extra mouths to eat some of this food lately! Speaking of food, that salad looks amaze-balls. Seriously good job, my friend. #WolfpackEats

    Reply

    • Summer house in upstate NY?! Where’s that?! We don’t have a summer house lol. Unless you secretly bought one for us, which would be mighty kind of you. And I know you are that type of awesome guy that would go ahead and buy someone a house… so thanks so much. Send me the address and we’ll be right up hahaha.

      Reply

  24. Morning star’s spicy black bean burgers are some of my fav’s – topped with avocado and egg, they sure must be heaven – that drippy egg yolk is food porn at its finest!
    So excited to hear about the new house – so when are y’all having a pool party and inviting all us blends (blogger friends) over for some totchos and veggie burgers? 🙂

    Reply

  25. Hi Chris. Love seeing all your delicious creativity that sparks our gastric juices!! The Morning Star Garden Veggie Burger is a go to staple here. I’m definitely going to try the Mediterranean Chickpea Pizza. We were weaned on chickpeas since my grandfather used to sell them from a double boiler pushcart at the Coney Island Boardwalk back in the 60s. Keep it coming Chris!

    Reply

  27. Wow! Awesome looking salad, Chris! Some salads leave me wanting something more, but this one looks so amazingly hearty and satisfying! Awesome post!

    Reply

  28. Chris, this is a fantastic salad! We’ve been big, big MorningStar Farms fans at my house for years and years. I can definitely vouch for how good their Spicy Black Bean burgers are, and I loooove putting a fried egg on top of practically anything … this salad is genius! Some other great MorningStar Farms products that we adore? Their corn dogs and mini corn dogs are fabulous, and we’ve chowed those since my kiddos were teeny, too. They’re so surprisingly delicious and are perfect to give me a (healthy!) corn dog fix (I kinda have a weak spot for hot dogs … #guiltypleasure). Also awesome? My daughter has one of their yummy breakfast Sausage Links almost every morning with her breakfast. Love this post! And hey, you’ll be pool-ready in no time! 😀

    Reply

  29. OK, I had GB Surgery, I have a hard time eating burgers, so the veggie burgers are a perfect substitute for me, as some meat is so dense and I get very sick, eating the veggie burgers are not only delicious, but I can eat 1/2 of a burger without any nausea at all !!!!!!!!! LOVE them !!!!!!!!!!! So glad it’s grilling season, I throw them on the grill, and two of my family members are vegan, so this is a huge hit in my home !!!!!!!!!!! YUMMMMMMMM !!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

  36. I have not had anything Morningstar in many years, since I quit being vegan/vegetarian (I was both). But I remember the products fondly. This salad sounds wonderful. Now if only I could get my husband to eat anything with avocado…

    Reply

  37. always have these in my freezer and I love hearty salads like these. Especially like the avocado yogurt sauce – does hte avocado go brown if you keep the sauce for too long? I always wondered about that.

    Good luck with the move!

    Reply

    • Yes, the avocado will go brown after a while. I’ve had success with keeping it green for a few days. The vinegar keeps it green, as does keeping a layer of plastic wrap directly on the dressing. Basically, keep oxygen from reaching the avocado = no browning.

      Reply

  38. Haha there are a some similarities between our posts today, particularly with the Greek yogurt dressing! (You know what they say about great minds…)
    I LOVE your recipe for Greek yogurt though, I am DEFINITELY going to be trying that soon!
    I’m about to move into my first home in a few months and I’m already dreading packing… yikes, doesn’t sound like fun!

    Reply

    • Great minds… oh yes we are! hahaha. Eh, just pack a little bit at a time and you’ll be good to go. Our mistake was packing up 80% of our house in 3 days. Not a great plan in hindsight.

      Reply

  39. New house with a pool?! How lucky are you! I would love to have a pool. Well maybe not in our current house. I’d never be to get in with our crazy temperatures. I so know what you mean about realizing how much stuff you have when you move. We are only allowed a certain amount of weight and we were way over our allowance. I had to do some serious purging. It’s like my house went on a diet. Now I miss all those things.
    I love these black bean burgers. I use to eat them all the time. They are great for a quick filling salad!

    Reply

    • Hahahaha wow could only move a certain amount of weight?! That’s really interesting. We would have to do serious amounts of purging if that was the case!

      Reply

  42. Eee! So exciting about the new house – congrats! The last time we moved, we upgraded from a 350 square foot in-law to a full on 3 bedroom house and still somehow managed to fill the house. Where we kept it all in the old apartment was beyond me; apparently I was really good at tetris.

    I used to be addicted to morning star’s corn dogs and nuggets – definitely my go-to quick dinner until I started eating gluten-free. This salad looks awesome – I love that you loaded it with all kinds of freshness.

    Reply

  43. My favorite is the Morningstar Farms Veggie Corn Dogs, such indulgent, delicious fun and the kids love them too!!

    Reply

  44. I’m a sucker for the breakfast sausage sandwich with egg and cheese. I love breakfast, but hate to make it. I should really try the black bean burgers…Thank you!

    Reply

  46. Our house limbo lasted a year. Then we moved into our new home, and within two years moved to Denver *sigh* Have you ever packed up a 5 bedroom house in 5 days? Yeah, done that.
    One of my daughters is a vegetarian so I always keep these kind of things in the freezer for her, though the other kids enjoy them just as much. But I love your salad topped with the black bean burger! Looks fab.
    Hope all works out for you! Wishing you lots of luck. I know what you’re going through 🙂

    Nazneen

    Reply

  47. Yaaaay for spicy black bean burgers! (same wave-length again – scary!) LOVE the idea of putting an egg on the top of this – I can imagine how well that goes. And I’ve got to master that dressing. It sounds divine.
    P.S. I can’t believe your new house has a pool! Nope, not jealous at all (= big fat lie).

    Reply

  52. Unfortunately I haven’t tried MorningStar Farms products but would like to try their Buffalo Chik Patties. However my mother-in-law loves the and enjoys the prime burgers, bacon, sausage patties, ribs and crumbles.

    Reply

  55. As were a bit buoyant around here too 🙂 I’d like to try replacing our usual on-the-run breakfast with the Morningstar Farms Sausage, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches. I’ll bet they’re good!

    Reply

  59. My favorite MorningStar Farms product is definitely the buffalo wings, they are delicious and my whole family enjoys them!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  65. Congrats on the move! YAY! Moving is such a big job eh? It must be nice to be done!
    I seriously need to try this salad…I had an idea for a veggie burger salad awhile back, and it just never happened…so, now it must! Pinned!

    Reply

  68. A huge fan of beans and legumes here! Just ordered 4kg dried black beans :-)) I put them in salads, stews, desserts, bread very often. This is a perfect dinner for me. Thanks for sharing, Chris.

    Reply

  69. LOVE veggie burgers and I love that you took them to the next level here!!! I always find that just one or two patties (while delicious) is never really enough to keep me full, so incorporating them into a hearty salad like this is the perfect idea!

    Reply

  70. That’s awesome that your parent’s house is 5 minutes from work – what a commute!

    And this salad looks delicious – I love the sound of that avocado dressing! Hope you had a good weekend!!

    Reply

  71. I know you labeled this as a dinner, but I’m totally seeing myself inhaling this for breakfast after my morning run.
    That’s the sort of power-breakfast a wolf needs after hunting 😉

    Reply

  72. I know you’ve labeled this as “dinner”, but I’m totally seeing myself gobbling this for breakfast after my morning run.
    That’s the sort of power-breakfast a wolf needs after hunting 😉

    Reply

    • Most likely by the time most people eat breakfast, you’ve ran 14 miles, biked 36 miles, and swam to NJ and back. Yea, I would say that you deserve this salad for breakfast, haha.

      Reply

  78. Oh, I love the Morning Star sausages! … but one question … how did you get that egg to look so perfect!?! My eggs always end up scrambled. No matter how I intend to cook them 😛

    Reply

    • Hahaha, I don’t know… I guess I have good luck with cooking eggs or something. I actually had to cook 2 of them because the first one wasn’t quite good enough for the camera. I put the heat on med-low and cover the skillet with some sort of lid so that the top of the egg cooks pretty fast as well.

      Reply

  79. Looking at the glass half full is important! Congrats on the new house with a pool!

    The salad looks amazing. I love the shot of the running yolk… it has me drooling.

    Reply

  81. Woohoooo a pool. I would be thrilled. I nanny right now, and one of the families I nanny for has a pool….kinda gotta have one some day 😉 I’m totally digging what you did with this black bean burger Chris! You’re a genius. What better way to get in shape than eating tasty salads…tasty is key. Nobody likes a gross and tasteless salad. This is the farthest thing from that. Thanks for sharing 😀 Hope you’ve had a great Tuesday!

    Reply

  83. Oh my gosh this salad looks delicious! So many great flavours going on in there! I love adding an egg to a salad, it just makes it that much better 🙂

    Reply

  86. Yay for the new house – it sounds absolutely lovely! But I feel our pain man, moving can be so so so exhausting… *Cries because I’m moving tomorrow too ahhhh* Best of luck with it all!!
    Also, these burgers look magnificent. I cannot believe they’re healthy!! xx

    Reply

  87. I would love to try the buffalo chicken wings!
    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 at gmail dot com

    Reply

  97. I have not tried any MorningStar Farms products yet but I would love to try the MorningStar Farms Buffalo Chik Patties, I like spicy food and these patties look so delicious.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  100. i’ve never tried these before but they really look great! I’d like to try the Buffalo Chik patties.

    Reply

  106. I would like to try out the MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Chik’n Veggie Patties

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

    Reply

  121. I really like the MorningStar Corn Dogs…it’s a treat my whole family enjoys, especially in the sumnmer!

    Reply

  132. I like the garden veggie burger. I was suprised that it was really good! I add extra stuff on top of my burger like mushrooms and onions and cheese!

    Reply

  135. Wow, they have so many things to try! Everything sounds so tasty 🙂 I’ve never tried them before but one thing I’d love to check out is the MorningStar Farms® Mediterranean Chickpea Pizza 🙂

    Reply

  138. Morningstar Farms® Garden Veggie Patties™ and Morningstar Farms® Veggie Corn Dogs look amazing!
    tvollowitz at aol dot com

    Reply

  145. I don’t have a favorite but I would like to try the Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles

    Reply

  151. I haven’t tried it yet but would like to try the MorningStar Farms® Veggie Bacon Strips. thank you!

    Reply

  152. The salads look amazing! I love the Prime Griller and I want to try the Morningstar. Spicy Black Bean Burger.

    Reply

  153. I haven’t tried Morningstar Farms yet due to unhappy experiences with other vegan brands. I would like to try the Hickory BBQ Riblets though.

    Reply

  155. I don’t have a favorite as I haven’t tried any of them yet but I would like to try all the veggie burgers, especially the black bean. I love black beans and have been trying to make things with them myself to little success.

    Reply

  157. I don’t have a favorite because I have never tried their products before but I have always wanted to try the Veggie burgers.

    Reply

  172. I do not have a favorite product yet, but I bet it might be one of the grillers or the Italian Herb Chik Patties .

    Reply

  183. I like the Chipotle Black Bean Burger. I always buy them. I have broken them up into a salad, but your idea of the egg with yogurt dressing is genius!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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