Black Bean Burgers

Now that we're all aware how to prepare legumes, let's freaking cook some already.

On the left, we have a black bean burger atop a brown rice flatbread with parsley sauce, red chard, sliced calabazita verde (Mexican zucchini) and julienne onion. Below are the recipes for the burger and sauce. The flatbread is inspired by something we used to make at Great Taste Café. I've been baking flatbreads like crazy lately, experimenting to make it softer, fluffier, tastier. I'll publish the recipe here as soon as I perfect it.

Black Bean Burgers

1 C raw black beans

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 Tbs cumin

2 Tbs dried oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp turmeric

Cook and mash the beans. Make sure they are fully drained before you mash them so that your burgers are not watery and do not fall apart. Dice the onion and garlic. Mix all the ingredients together with salt and pepper to taste.

Divide the burger mix into 6 to 9 equal portions (depending on how big your buns are). Fry the patties in oil in a hot pan. If you want a sturdier product, mix in one egg or 2 Tbl tapioca starch before cooking. These are vegan without the egg! Forget about firing up the grill. These are too fragile unless you want to cook them hobo-style inside of an aluminum foil pouch.

Parsley Sauce

1 bunch parsley

1/4 onion

2 Tbs apple cider vinegar

2 Tbs ketchup

2 Tbs dijon mustard

2 Tbs agave nectar

1 Tbs Sriracha hot sauce (or more)

1 Tbs mustard seeds

Toast the mustard seeds in a dry pan on high heat until they start to brown. With one knife cut, remove most of the stems from the parsley. Put the leaves in a food processor with all the other ingredients and a pinch of salt. Please don't bother to measure, just pour away. Process everything together until it takes on a pesto-like consistency. The addition of ketchup and mustard ensures this sauce won't clash with standard burger condiments.

The Peoples' Pancake

Whenever I find myself making breakfast for a group of people, I like to turn out these easy crowd-pleasers. The best part is, they're vegan and gluten-free, so almost anyone can eat them. Berries were on sale at my local grocer that morning, so I treated my friends to homemade blackberry syrup.

Vegan Banana Pancakes

2 brown bananas

1/4 C soy milk

1/2 C brown rice flour

1/4 C sorghum flour

1/4 C tapioca starch

pinch baking powder

pinch salt

Mush the bananas in a bowl. Add the soy milk and mix. Sift the dry ingredients together and mix with the banana/milk mixture.

Spoon the batter on a griddle or hot pan with a little canola oil or margarine (I like Earth Balance Buttery Spread because its non-hydrogenated).

I never measure the ingredients when I make these, so all of the amounts above are estimates. If you like thicker pancakes and the batter looks a little thin, add more brown rice flour, or if you want it thinner, add more soy milk.

Berry Syrup

1 pint berries, cleaned

1/3 C sugar or agave nectar

juice of half lemon or lime

Put all ingredients in a small pot with enough water to cover. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, or until the fruit starts to separate from the seeds. Strain the syrup to remove most of the seeds. I like to leave a few seeds in for a pleasant, but not overwhelming, crunch. If the fruit needs help separating form the fruit, you can pulse the liquid in a blender or use an emersion blender to quickly zap the syrup before straining.

Here's an action-shot of the pancakes sharing space on my plate with a veggie omelet. For the advanced move, try spreading nut butter on the pancakes before drizzling with syrup. My favorite is almond butter!

Photos courtesy of Robin Petré.

Beans, Beans, the Wonderful Fruit

Indulging my urge to cook can sometimes be easier than giving in to my need to grocery shop. Whenever my cupboard is bear, I look to the dried legumes filling the jars on the back of the shelf to feed me. It wasn't until recently that I realized these delicious little dried fruits hold an air of mystery to some! When a friend asked me how long she needed to cook canned chickpeas, I knew I needed to set the record straight with an educational, bean-tastic blog post.

Legume? That's a funny word.

I'll spare you the wiki details, but legumes are actually considered fruit. The easiest way to identify them is the seam down the middle. You know how a peanut will break cleanly in half? That's because it's not a nut, it's a legume! Or think about the way pea pods open, and the peas inside even break into halves when you remove the shell: legumes. Technically a bean is a legume, but a legume isn't necessarily a bean, just like a square is a rectangle, etc. But many people use the words "bean" and "legume" interchangeably, so don't be a snob if someone gets it wrong.

Nutrition

As most savvy vegans know, legumes can supply much-needed protein to a meat-free diet. To make sure you're eating a complete protein (that is, protein which includes all of the essential amino acids in the proportion that a human diet needs), be sure to pair your legumes with brown rice. Even the soy bean isn't a complete protein, so put your teriyaki tofu over brown fried rice. Brown rice is heartier than white rice and more difficult to digest, so make sure you're chewing your food very well to avoid a stomach ache.

Preparation

Legumes that come in cans are pre-cooked. The only preparation you have to do is making them as hot (or cold) as you would like for your particular recipe. This convenience is the advantage of canned legumes; they are ready to put directly in your mouth. Otherwise, compared to dried legumes, they are slightly more expensive and less nutritious due to the sodium content of most canned food. Rinse beans in water to remove some of that salt.

Dried legumes require three steps before consumption: rinse, soak, cook.

1. Rinse Your Legumes

If you buy your legumes from the bulk section of your local food store, chances are, they are dirty. As in dusty, touched by many hands, and possibly containing a few foreign objects or rotten beans. Even if you bought a bag of pre-packaged legumes, they were probably in a bulk bin at some point. Measure your legumes and rinse them well with water, then drain. Be sure to pick through them to remove anything strange, such as a rogue black bean that has turned partially green in the style of gross potato chips everywhere.

2.a) Long Soak

If you have the foresight, soak your legumes the night before. Put them in a container with enough water to cover by at least 3 inches and let sit overnight. There's no need to refrigerate. By the next day they should have soaked up some of the water and increased in size. Drain and discard the water.

2.b)Short Soak

Forgot to soak? That's OK. This short soak is less energy efficient, but it will do in a pinch. Put rinsed legumes in a pot with enough water to cover by at least 3 inches. Turn the heat on full blast and wait for a rolling boil. Stir the once, turn off the heat, and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Wait 2 hours or until the pot returns to room temperature. Drain and discard the water.

3. Cook Them Legumes

Cover with water and set the legumes on high heat. Add salt to the water, about 1 tablespoon per cup of dried legumes. Boil the legumes for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. A kidney bean is much larger than a lentil, and therefore takes much longer to cook. I always taste to legumes to check doneness. A properly cooked bean should be soft with a creamy texture inside and not at all grainy or crunchy.

This may the point in your recipe where you add flavoring. I suggest sauteing the aromatic ingredients first (like garlic, onion, gharam masala and chile), then adding legumes and liquid (like lentils and vegetable stock) and cooking until everything is soft and delicious. Look, you just made Indian dahl!

Make Boring Beans Yummy

Legumes can be a little plain if eaten alone. Experiment with recipes and flavors. Black beans fit with onion and cilantro, kidney beans go great in chili, and garbanzos are delicious with tomato and spices, chana masala style. Blend legumes and flavorings in a food processor for dips like hummous. The possibilities are many if you get creative and hungry. Tonight I'm making black bean veggie burgers, check back soon for the recipe!