Black bean & chipotle burgers

I was craving fast food today but vegetarian style and this what I ended up with. I usually don't eat canned beans but I've had this canned back beans forever so I decided to finally use it up. Black beans goes so well with spices such as chipotle. 

Bean burgers  4 burgers

I can black beans

1 cup zucchini

1 yellow onion

2 garlic cloves

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 tsp chipotle paste

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup flour or garbanzo bean flour

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 4ooF

Chop onion, cut zucchini into small pieces, grate garlic and fry everything in some canola oil for about 2 minutes. Ad mix to beans, rice, chipotle, ketchup and spices and blend in a food processer until well blended. Place bean mix into a bowl and add flour and blend well. Shape beans into 4 medium burgers or 2 big ones. Place burgers on oiled cookie sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes.

Cashew sausages

These little American style sausages come from just adding things that sounded good and was available at home. Cashews nuts seemed like a great choices since their natural sweetness would appeal to a toddler and they did. In the past I have used rice or potatoes as a base for neat balls or sausages but decided to use barley for its high nutrients and nutty flavor. It all worked well and they were easy to to shape and cook. We served them vegetables and a curry sauce.

Cashew nut sausages or neat balls serves 2 (4 each)
1/2 cup roasted unsalted cashew nuts
1/2 chopped medium yellow onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1 cup cooked barley
1/2 mushrooms
2 tsp canola oil + more for frying the neat balls or sausages
Smoked paprika
Salt
bread crumbs to bread the sausages in
Heat oil in frying pan and satay onions, garlic and mushrooms on medium heat until soft. Blend, onion and mushrooms mix, barley, nuts and spices in a food processor, blender or with a hand held mixer until a past. You can add some flour when making the sausages or balls if they are too sticky. Place bread crumbs on a plate and either roll neat balls or turn sausages until coated. Heat oil in frying pan and fry them until golden brown.

Beet burgers

One of our favorite vegetable is the beet and right now they are in season and inexpensive at the farmers market or store. We happen to be growing some on our garden but they are not done yet so I had to do with some from the farmers market instead.

Most people have experienced canned or pickled beets, but few people have had fresh beet experience because many people simply don't know how to cook with beets. Beets are loaded with nutrition; they are high in folic acid, potassium, calcium and antioxidants (betacyanin, which is what gives beets their rich red color.).
Now the beets we are talking about so far are the beet roots, the portion that grows below the ground. However, leafy beet greens are also very nutritious and can be used for juicing, or cooking as you would any other green. In fact the beet tops are more nutritious than the roots. The greens contain significantly more iron, vitamin A, potassium and calcium than the roots.
So not only is beet nutrition good for you, they are also delicious baked, shredded in salads, or even as their own salad. One of our more creative but fun ways to eat beets is as a beet root burger.

Sorry about the bad image


Two big burgers

• 2 large grated beets
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• Flour (use as much until burgers are shapable)
• pinch on cumin
• salt & pepper to taste
• Canola oil for frying

Place all ingredients in a bowl mixed it with a hand held mixed or in blender until smooth. Mix in flour and make the beet root past thick so it can be shaped into two burgers. Fry them in frying pan on each side. Adding cheese to these brugers makes them great. Enjoy!!!