Love Cakes

I keep wanting to pre-cook food for the week ahead, and we've slowly been doing that. We made black bean cakes for lunch using a modified recipe from the Flying Biscuit cookbook. Flying Biscuit serves them with a garnish of raw red onions, tomatillo salsa, feta cheese, and sour cream. We modified them by adding cheese, then ate them as burgers with melted cheese slices and ketchup/mustard. FB also serves them with eggs and potatoes for breakfast. Prep time is about 20 minutes because of all the mashing, but they cook up in about 5 or so minutes.

Servings: 8 burgers, 16 small patties (served two per person)

Ingredients:

• 2 (15 ounce) cans cooked black beans
• 2 tablespoons canola oil                                                                        
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup medium white cheddar (or similar)
• 1/4 cup masa de harina (finely ground corn meal)

Directions:

• Rinse and drain black beans in a sieve.
• Sauté 1 tablespoon of the canola oil over medium heat and onion, garlic, cumin, and salt until onions are translucent.
• Combine drained beans, cheese, and onion mixture in a bowl and mash with a potato masher until well combined.
• Gradually add masa, allowing mixture to absorb it before adding more. You’ll want to do this mixing with your hands, as I’ve never found another combine it well. Keep adding masa until dough doesn't stick to your hand and holds the shape of a ball.
• Divide dough into 16 small balls or 8 medium balls and flatten into cakes. Warm the remaining tablespoon of canola oil and sauté cakes until lightly browned on each side, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.
• Garnish and enjoy. Patties should freeze well, but we'll find out later this week when we try out the ones we've frozen.