I love vegetarian dishes in general and we often have several dinners each week which are meatless but I challenged myself to plan the entire days menu without any meat. It is better for the environment, better for your health, helps keep my grocery budget in check and important people like Paul McCartney share in the “Meatless Monday” idea. It’s not often I do something that chic!Black Beans are my favorite form of vegetarian protein… or maybe it’s the Pinto bean. And I’m crazy about cilantro! At any rate, I made a delicious dinner for meatless Monday yesterday. My children arrived home with their Dad after running and wondered who was grilling out… it smelled so good even approaching the house. The menu; Black Bean-Corn Cakes with Cilantro Lime Sour Cream, Tortilla Chips with choice of Mexican or Chipotle Salsa and Cantaloupe.
My husband said these were like vegetarian burgers… only better! The cilantro-lime taste made the dish extra good he said while several of my children preferred the bean cakes without the sour cream. Only my 4 and 1 year olds decided they weren’t impressed… however they both ate cantaloupe like watermelon and liked it which they may not have done had they filled up on the rest of dinner. Also, this dish is quick (and would be even quicker without having to triple the recipe) AND you can form these patties ahead of time, leave them in the fridge for 2-3 days and fry them to a golden color whenever you are ready for them so they’re fresh. They were really delicious. Enjoy!
Black Bean-Corn Cakes with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream (Yields 2 servings of 2 bean cakes and 2 Tbsp. Cilantro cream per each serving)
*Easy* 16 min. prep. time/ 10 min. cook time
10 oz. canned black beans, rinsed, drained and mashed coarsely (I soaked 2 cups of dry black beans and then boiled them until tender before draining and rinsing again for this to give me 30 oz. of beans. You can always freeze extra beans till you’re ready for them if you happen to make too many. They were easy to mash. This is way cheaper than canned beans and super simple.)
1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c. frozen corn kernels
3 Tbsp. yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp. cilantro, fresh, chopped
1 large egg white (I tripled this recipe and just used one whole egg)
1/2 to 1 can of chopped green chilis
1 medium scallion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. ground Cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. corn oil
1/4 c. lite sour cream or plain fat free yogurt
1 tps. grated lime zest
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
Combine beans, cheese, corn, 1 Tbsp. cornmeal, 1 Tbsp. cilantro, egg white, green chilies, scallion, garlic, cumin and salt in a medium bowl until well mixed. Divide the mixture into 4 balls.
Place remaining 2 Tbsp. cornmeal on a plate. Roll bean balls in the cornmeal to coat. Press each ball into a 1/2 inch thick patty.
Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add cakes and cook on both sides until crisp and golden outside and heated through.
To make cilantro sour cream, combine the sour cream, lime zest, lime juice and remaining 1 Tbsp. cilantro in small bowl. Serve with bean cakes.
Those look delicious!! I'm going to try this one - love cilatro and lime!
ReplyDeleteStacey
Hi Heather! These do look good (and sound good, too!) I am going to give these a try also. First, I have to try the dried bean cooking - I'm never very confident about that part.
ReplyDeleteBarb, you can use canned black beans for this recipe. Even though it's not too hard I understand your hesitation to use dried beans. I have just ventured into frequent cooking with dried beans myself and it takes a little bit of adjustment. I find the method of soaking, rinsing, boiling and rinsing works best for beans to be used in recipes other than soup. For soup I just soak and rinse once. But rinsed canned beans work great and I always keep some on hand.
ReplyDeleteI don't cook with meat too much. I started using dried beans a few years ago. Its not too bad once you've done it a few times. This recipe looks so good. They sound very similar to my black bean burgers with cilantro-lime mayo. Avocado goes great with it. There's a lot of ingredients in this, do you feel this really saves you money on your grocery bill? I try to always have on hand cumin, corn meal, garlic, eggs, and cheese, but not the rest. I have never heard of corn oil.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your questions, Rachael, I used a little olive oil (instead of corn oil or other vegetable oil) in my pan for these bean cakes. I almost always have everything on hand including chilies since I buy in bulk when things go on sale and I love them. I happened to have leftover scallion and cilantro that needed to be used because I often use them and I don't like to waste. Cornmeal I use all the time for cornbread and pizza plus a few other random things. Plus we happened to have a bag of limes so Rick could make a key lime pie for Sunday. Since I purchase everything whenever it goes on sale combined with making foods with beans instead of meat I am quite certain we save money. I would have a hard time affording the groceries any other way. I look around to see what I have and then make my menu instead of deciding what I will make and then going to the store. My key interest in this recipe, however, was that it was lowfat, high fiber and uses beans which I have an absolute ton of. I buy those in bulk too so it's even cheaper and so we are better "prepared".
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