black bean monday

for the love of legumes and healthy vegan/vegetarian diets, here are a couple of black bean recipes for you to enjoy. soak some black beans overnight, drain and cook in plenty of water. ready in less than an hour, home-cooked beans have less sodium than the canned variety, are less expansive and keep your recycling bin from overflowing.

the veggie nut&bean burger...

0.5 cup of black beans
0.25 cup of walnuts and pumpkin seeds, mixed and chopped
1T parsley, finely chopped
1-2T red onion, finely chopped
1T red bell pepper, finely chopped
1t cumin, ground
1t mixed herbs (i.e marjoram, tarragon, oregano)
salt to taste

in a food processor or a blender, finely chop the nuts and seeds. in a bowl, mush the black beans with a fork (or process in a food processor). add the nuts, parsley, pepper, onion, spices and herbs. mix well. form 2 patties and refrigerate for about 20min. fry in some oil for about 3 minutes on each side. enjoy alone (with a salad) or on a bun, topped with avocado, tomato and some chipotle ketchup (1T spoon of organic ketchup mixed with 1t of chopped chipotle in adobo sauce)

note that these burgers have a crunchy exterior with a middle that's still soft. you could try to mix in an egg if you prefer, but i wanted to make them vegan ... they didn't crumble and held together nicely.

and the topper... (also great for your burger)

0.5 cup black beans + 1 red pepper (chopped) + 2 green onions (chopped) + 0.25 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels + 1 ripe tomato (chopped) + 2 finely diced chipotle peppers (in abodo sauce), a good squirt of lime juice, cumin and salt to taste = black bean-chipotle salsa