10×10 in 2010

Posts Tagged ‘Vegetarian’

Oats + Bamix = Oat Powder

After a mostly successful first attempt at making Black Bean Burgers, I decided to have another go for lunch today.  Keeping in mind Heather’s preference for *not spicy*, and a general desire to cut down on grains, we made a few adjustments to the recipe.

Recipe Revisions

• Drain & rinse the beans. A colander worked well for this, then after a few minutes to drain, spread the beans out on a paper towel to soak up even more moisture.
• Reduce the spices. Cut the chili powder down from 1 tablespoon to 1/2 tablespoon, and the Frank’s RedHot from 1 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon.  We left the cumin and garlic alone.
• Cut down the grains. Instead of using bread crumbs, Heather did a quick search and found that oats make a good substitute.  I got to learn what the grinder attachment does for the Bamix mixer! (That’s the Bamix in the photo, with the grinder attachment – best kitchen tool ever, next to a sharp paring knife.) It also only need a shade over half a cup, instead of the nearly two cups of bread crumbs (partly because I drained the beans this time…)
• Cut down the onion. The original recipe calls for half an onion, but I don’t think it meant the mutant-onion-that-ate-Detroit that I went with the first time.  We used a more respectively-sized chunk of onion this time.

Results

Outstanding!  There was just enough for 4 good-sized burgers, and while they still had some bite, it wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy.  Heather proclaimed them tasty.  In fact, she’s heading to the store for ingredients so I can make a couple dozen burgers and freeze them.

We’ll chalk this recipe up as a solid success!  If you get the chance to try the recipe out, add a comment below to let me know how it works out.

Who knew a can of black beans, half an onion, half a green pepper, an egg, some breadcrumbs and a handful of spices would be so delicious?  Easy preparation, quick grill on the stove (no fat means no grease spatter), and excellent texture and taste.  One thing to note, to avoid burning them, keep a careful eye.  Because there’s next to no fat, they don’t sizzle like a meat burger as a warning; actually, they sizzle for a few seconds while the surface moisture cooks off, then they, well, sit there.

My tastes run to the spicier, so these were absolutely delicious to me.  The recipe indicates it serves four (4 patties), but even with relatively large burgers, we were able to make six burgers.  Heather didn’t care for them so much – too spicy.  We’ll cut the spice components in half next time we make this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 can Black Beans (15.5 oz is fine)
• 1/2 Onion (Medium-sized onion)
• 1/2 Green bell pepper (Medium-sized pepper)
• 1/2 Cup bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp hot sauce (we used Frank’s RedHot)
• 1 Egg
• 3 Garlic gloves, peeled
  • (We used 3 tsp of garlic powder for the first run, since we were out of garlic, seemed to work ok)

Put an iron griddle on the stove on medium-high heat and let it warm up while mixing the ingredients.

Drain, rinse and then *dry* the black beans to remove excess water.  We missed this step, so had to add an extra cup of bread crumbs to get the mixture to the right consistency for patties.

Put the beans in a medium-size bowl and use a fork to mash them into paste.  Drying the beans will also help with this since they won’t be so slippery.

Use a food processor to blend up the garlic, pepper and onions.

Drop all of the ingredients into the bowl and blend them thoroughly.

Add extra breadcrumbs if needed to get the bean dough sticky enough.  As I mentioned earlier, drying the beans first will help reduce the amount of carbs you’re pouring in at this point.

Make some patties and throw them on the now-heated grill.  You shouldn’t need any spray – the moisture in the burgers was plenty, and we just used a metal spatula to flip them after a couple of minutes.

Throw on a multi-grain bun with some lettuce, tomato and ketchup!