Black Bean Burgers

On Saturday the King of Soup was working in the backyard all day long with our best friend Saro. They are building our new deck. It was hot in Toronto, in the mid-30s, humid too. They toiled for hours with an auger, digging nine holes in which to pour concrete supports for the new deck. 

By the end of the day I knew they would need a shower, and then a good dinner. The King had mentioned hot dogs for the boys, so I figured since he was BBQing, I would make something for myself to go on said BBQ. I decided on black bean burgers – something I had not tried before.

I did some initial searching online (seriously, why do I even own cookbooks anymore?) and I found a few recipes that looked interesting. The one I based this recipe on is from www.allrecipes.com. I made a few adjustments, and my version is below.

But before I give you my version, let me tell you this...the King is not vegetarian, and neither is Saro. They both ate my burgers and loved them. The King loved them so much that he decided he could be vegetarian. I said to him, “I think you could eat less meat but I don’t think you could be vegetarian”. He insisted. So then I asked, “What about pulled pork? Do you think you could give up pulled pork?” The answer was no.

Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 19 oz can black beans, drained, rinsed, and patted dry

½ red pepper (original recipe called for green pepper)

½ onion (I used Vidalia)

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp chilli powder

½ tbsp cumin (ground) (original recipe called for 1 tbsp, but I thought that might be too much cumin)

2 - 3 tsp Sambal Olek (or other hot sauce) (original recipe called for 1 tsp only)

Salt and pepper (original recipe had no salt and pepper)

Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped (original recipe had no cilantro)

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1/2 tbsp epazote (Mexican spice used in bean dishes) (original recipe didn't call for this)

Now that I have made these once, I think next time I might add green onions, and maybe some corn.

Method:

Once the beans are rinsed and patted dry, put them into a bowl and start mashing them. I tried a fork and this didn’t work well so I switched to a pastry blender. Put the bowl aside.

Using a food processor, process the red pepper, onion and garlic and add them to the bean mix once they are pulverized. I used a small hand-processor so I had to do the peppers separate from the onion and garlic.

Mix up the beans and pulverized mix. Add the spices, cilantro, salt and pepper. Add the egg and breadcrumbs. Mix it all together. 

Form into patties. I had purchased small ‘slider’ buns so I made smaller patties (I got 10). The photo below shows the size compared to my fingers.

To cook the patties: If you are using an outdoor BBQ, put the patties on tin foil that you have sprayed with cooking spray. About 8 minutes per side should do the trick. If you are cooking in the oven, put the oven at 375 degrees and use a cookie sheet with cooking spray – 8 minutes per side. I guess this could take a bit longer if the patties are larger.

 The patties did fall apart just a little. We read comments online (with regard to the source recipe) and some cooks had suggested either:

1      Adding more egg

2        Adding more breadcrumbs

3        Cooking from frozen

So the next night when I went to cook the leftovers, we employed the cooking from frozen recommendation. The King thinks this worked better, but it did take just a tad longer to cook.

I served the burgers with homemade guacamole (see previous post for my guacamole!), and salad.

Enjoy! And be sure to tell me about any variations you come up with!

Cinco de Mayo Black Bean Tacos

Today I find myself cursing marathon runners. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that people run marathons – it just sucks when the marathon route prevents me from reaching Toronto Billy Bishop airport. The ride from my home to the airport usually takes 10 minutes. This morning, King of Soup asked me if I was going to take a cab or if he and the kids could give me a ride. We decided that it would be nice for them to drive me so we could have a few more moments together before I skip town for a few days to attend a conference in Montreal.

We departed our home one and a half hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. One and a quarter hours later I arrived at the airport. Needless to say there was a lot of stress, many curse words (KoS has a potty mouth), and the kids actually fell asleep in the backseat during the journey. 

Of course, I missed my flight. I am now booked on a flight that leaves two hours after the original flight. This leaves me with some time to kill – what better time to describe the delicious tacos I made last night for Cinco de Mayo.

The first time I had a taco was just two weeks ago. I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I am just getting up to speed on Mexican food. Two weeks ago, while at another conference in Ottawa, we went to a little restaurant in the Byward Market called Sidedoor. It’s a tapas-sort-of-style place, with small plates that people share. I am not a good sharer. Generally because I am very picky, a vegetarian, and a picky vegetarian (for example, I don’t like eggplant, mushrooms, raw tomatoes, tofu...). Sigh. I can be difficult, I know. Did I mention I am picky?

So I asked the waiter, as my colleagues were ordering fish tacos, pulled pork tacos, duck tacos...or maybe it was lamb – some cute animal anyway...if he could fashion for me some kind of vegetarian taco that didn’t have eggplant, mushrooms, raw tomatoes or tofu. He told me that it would not be a problem at all (I like it when waiters say stuff like that).

He brought me a vegetarian taco that was DELICIOUS. It had tempura avocado in it (I know, right???), and some sauce, and another sauce, and some leafy greens. I don’t know what was in it but it was great. And it inspired me.

So since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, and the KoS loves Mexican food, and he had been toiling all day long with his Dad making improvements and repairs to our humble abode, I decided to take a stab at tacos. Baby steps.

Here’s what I did. I am not claiming them to be gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but they were delicious.

Ingredients:

1 red pepper, sliced in long strips (not too thin)

1 green pepper, prepared the same way

1 yellow pepper, prepared the same way

1 small to medium sweet onion

Some garlic (now tragically I somehow had no fresh garlic so I was forced to use garlic powder – it was fine but I am sure it would be better with fresh)

½ to 1 can black beans, rinsed well and drained

Handful of cilantro

½ - ¾ cup salsa

1 – 2 tsp sambal olek (or other hot sauce, or jalapeno peppers diced finely)

Salt and pepper

½ cup grated cheese

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, 1 – 2 tsp cumin (ground)

I also used 1 tsp of epazote, a Mexican herb mixture that I picked up recently at Penzey’s in Santa Monica - http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysepazote.html

Garnishes:

Small amount diced tomatoes (these were for the KoS)

A few handfuls of arugula (this works well because it is nice and peppery)

Home made guacamole (see my previous blog about guacamole)

Lime

The Wrapper:

Soft flour taco shells (wrap the stack in foil, seal it up, place it in a 300 degree oven until they are warmed through - ~15 minutes)

Directions:

Place some olive oil (maybe 2 tbsp) in a sauté pan and when it’s heated up a bit throw in your onions. Keep them at a high heat for about a minute and then turn it down a bit to medium-high to sauté the onions. When they start to brown around the edges (or longer, to your taste), toss in the peppers and the garlic, and add the salt and pepper and the cumin and epazote. Sauté for a few more minutes.

Then add the jalapenos or the hot sauce, the black beans, and the salsa. Let simmer but only for about 2-3 minutes. Then toss in the fresh cilantro.

The mixture is ready.

To Serve:

Remove the soft taco shells from the oven. Take one and place it on a plate. Put some of the pepper, black bean, onion, salsa mixture in the middle of the taco shell. Add a few tablespoons of guacamole, then some arugula, the tomatoes (if you like that sort of thing), and a bit of grated cheese. Squeeze some lime on there for tartness.

And there you have it! Tacos!

You could easily serve this with the Texas Caviar (recipe posted last week), or with another fresh salad.

The Best Guacamole Ever

Everything you need for great guacamole is in this photo!

The best guacamole I ever had was at the Acapulco Princess Hotel. I was there with my Mom and my Aunt Lynn. While Mom was working, Lynn and I soaked up the sun and ate quite a bit of guacamole! It was a really long time ago so I can’t really quite remember what made it so amazing, but ever since that trip I have been trying to recreate the awesomeness of that perfect green dip. I have succeeded in coming pretty close. Here is my recipe.

This recipe will feed 4-6 people as an appetizer, with chips. And make sure you choose good chips - our favourites are made by Que Pasa.

2 large avocados

2 – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Lemon juice – about the juice of ½ lemon, but you might like more (or less)

Tomato (or salsa) – one small tomato or a couple of tbsp of salsa

Sambal Olek (Thai chilie sauce) – start with a good teaspoon, then taste and add more

Salt & pepper to taste

Optional additions (not in the photo):

Fresh cilantro, cumin, sour cream, lime – one at a time or all together

I like to use one soft avocado for every firm avocado; that way you get a chunkier guacamole and you experience different textures of the avocado as you are eating. Some hipster bloggers might actually dare to say that it gives “good mouth feel”, but I would never say that because I am not a hipster.

Slice the avocado with a knife and break it in half. Hit the sharp edge of the knife on the pit of the avocado and twist it out. Remove the deliciousness from the skin, and put it into a bowl. Save the pit (I will tell you why later). Repeat with all avocados.

 

Toss all the other ingredients into the bowl and mix it lightly with a fork.

Taste your guacamole. Is it super awesome? Great. Not so super awesome? It might need more lemon juice. Maybe more hot sauce. Likely more salt and pepper. 

Once you are happy with the taste, decide when you are going to serve it. If your guests are at the table and you need to serve right away, put it in a nice bowl, pour some chips into another bowl, and go mad. If you are planning to serve it later, put it into a container with a lid and add the pits back into the container. The pits will help prevent the guacamole from turning brown. For real!

If you decide that you want to spice up your guacamole, you could go with the cumin – it adds a nice smokiness without being too chipotle-ish. Or, add some chopped cilantro. Sour cream makes it creamier which can sometimes repair your guac if your avocados are not ripe enough. I sometimes use lime juice instead of lemon juice, and sometimes, when it’s Crazy Day, I use both. It’s up to you because you are the Chef.

Also goes well with quesadillas! And tacos! And burritos!