Thursday, July 28, 2011

Black Bean Burger

Two things.  First, I absolutely love finding new food blogs to get ideas from.  Second, I'm trying to train my body to get less sleep.  No, you did not read that wrong.  I have been falling asleep at night when I put my daughter to bed....at 8pm.  Yet every day I struggle to keep my eyes open.  So maybe I'm getting too much sleep????  Who knows, but I decided to kill two birds with one stone (where did that phrase come from anyway??) tonight and stayed up late to try out a new recipe from a new blog that I'm quickly falling in love with: Annie Eats.

For those of you that might not know, I was a vegetarian for a good while before I got pregnant and couldn't eat anything that I use to (curse you gestational diabetes.)  Beans were a staple in my diet.  I ate them all the time. With that, I had tried several different black bean burgers. Some good, some not so good.  I never really had a set recipe that I used or fell back on.  After making this recipe tonight, I think I might finally have one.  This burger turned out so flavorful.  All the pieces just fit together perfectly.  Annie suggested Havarti cheese to top it with and I'm going to have to agree completely.  While it might be a bit more difficult to find, the flavor was the finishing piece to round it out. Want to try it for yourself?  Let's go!

mix the olive oil with the breadcrumbs with a fork until it is completely incorporated.  The recipe calls for Panko breadcrumbs but I grabbed plain breadcrumbs from the shelf.  It didn't taint the recipe at all. 

Once mixed, heat in a skillet on the stove until toasted

Set aside to cool
Rinse and drain 2 cans of beans

In a large bowl, mash up 1 1/2 cups of the beans

In a separate bowl, mix together eggs,

oil, 
cumin, 
salt and cayenne.



dice up a red bell pepper, 

and a scallion. They look like a mini onion. 


To the mashed bean mixture, add the breadcrumbs, egg mixture, pepper and scallion, and the left over whole beans.


Mix all together



Don't forget the cilantro!!  I almost did. I might have cried...

Patty them out.  To keep them all the same size, so they'll cook evenly, I used a 1/2 cup to measure.  This resulted in 6 nice sized burgers (and one baby one for Jesalyn)

Cook on the stove until nice and golden.  The secret to keep them from falling apart on you is: do not flip, touch, or stare directly at them until they are completely set on the bottom.  For me, this took about 8 minutes on each side.

Once cooked, transfer to bun, top with cheese and enjoy!



In yo face!


Black Bean Burgers
Yield: 6 burgers
Ingredients:
¾ cup panko
3 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. olive oil, divided
2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed, divided
2 large eggs
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
¼ cup fresh cilantro, minced
1 shallot, minced
Directions:
Place a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Combine the panko with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil and mix with a fork to blend.  Add the mixture to the skillet and toast the panko, stirring frequently, until light golden brown.  Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.  
Place 2½ cups of the beans in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork until mostly smooth.  In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, 1 tablespoon of the oil, cumin, salt and cayenne.  Whisk to blend.  Add the egg mixture, toasted panko, the remaining ½ cup beans, bell pepper, cilantro and shallot to the bowl with the mashed beans.  Stir together until evenly combined.  
Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions, about ½ cup each.  Lightly pack into 1-inch thick patties.  (At this point the patties can be covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before cooking.)  Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Carefully lay half of the patties in the skillet and cook until well browned on both sides, about 8-10 minutes total.  Transfer the cooked burgers to a plate, tent with foil, and repeat with the remaining oil and bean patties.  Serve warm.

from: Annie Eats

1 comment:

Bonnie James said...

I'm impressed. I do love black beans, though my brain does not automatically think this is going to be good. What condiments did you put on it? Where did you buy havarti cheese?