Saturday, January 16, 2010

Black Bean Cakes - Vegetarian Delights

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to eat less meat. I've been trying to cook and serve a vegetarian meal at least twice a week. It's better for me personally and definitely better for the environment. Of course, January is not the best time for fresh vegetables, but I did find a HUGE bag of Kale in the produce department at Walmart, from a farm in South Carolina -- that's pretty close to locally grown in my book. I found a recipe for Spicy Black Bean Cakes on Allrecipes.com, and set out to make a Vegetarian Feast of Black Bean Cakes and Sauteed Kale. Michael was skeptical at first, since the Black Bean Cakes called for Sweet Potato -- he just didn't think that combination sounded very appetizing. Needless to say he was pleasantly surprised at the end result. Here's the recipe for the Black Bean Cakes, reprinted from Allrecipes.com:

Ingredients:
Lime Sour Cream:
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 small fresh jalapeno pepper, minced
salt to taste
Bean Cakes:
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 green onions, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, pressed
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 (14.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained
and rinsed
salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups grated raw sweet potato
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried bread crumbs

Directions:
1. To prepare lime sour cream, mix the sour cream, lime juice, 1 small minced jalapeno, and salt together in a small bowl. Cover, and refrigerate.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook green onions until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in garlic, 2 diced jalapenos, and cumin; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Transfer contents of skillet to a large bowl. Stir in black beans, and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in sweet potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs. Divide into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.
4. In the oven, set cooking rack about 4 inches from heat source. Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil.
5. Place bean patties on baking sheet, and broil 8 to 10 minutes. Turn cakes over, and broil until crispy, about 3 minutes more. Serve with lime sour cream.


The black bean cakes came out absolutely delicious, and we had enough left over for dinner the next night. Not bad for ingredients that cost about $4.00!

I have posted the technique for my Sauteed Kale on this blog in the past, but I will give a quick refresher course here. The type of kale that I found was already chopped and triple-washed which was definitely a huge time-saver. If you get whole kale, make sure it is thoroughly washed, and stripped off the stems. Chop it up into smaller pieces, spin-dry in the salad spinner, then set aside. In a large pot (like a soup pot), heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (any kind). Add one yellow onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced. Saute the onion over medium-low heat for about 9-10 minutes until it has carmelized. To the onion, add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and saute for about one minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Now add the kale; you might have to add it in bunches and wait for the first bunch to wilt a little to make room for the rest. Once it's all added and mixed in with the onion and garlic, add a generous splash of soy sauce, mix it up with tongs, lower the heat and cover the pan. You only need to cook the kale for about 5 minutes until it has softened a bit; don't overcook. This is one of the most delicious ways to make greens, whether it be kale, swiss chard, mustard greens or turnip greens. If you want to give it an Asian flair, add a generous splash of sesame oil at the end.