Week 3 Bean Challenge: 1 dinner a week

We're continuing with our bean challenge. On Thursday, we had home-made black bean burgers. The kids ate them and enjoyed them (always a plus.) Our daughter said they tasted like potatoes. (?) I think they are getting used to our bean-centric dinners! Also, I've had black-bean burger left-overs 2 times this week. They taste good heated up too.

Here is a link to the black-bean burger recipe I used. I modified it a little bit the following ways:

- used dried cooked beans instead of canned
- used fresh corn (not sure if they meant canned, frozen, or fresh)
- used fresh bell pepper (from our garden) instead of roasted red pepper
- used 2 whole eggs instead of 1 egg white. That was because I made 2 batches - with and without onions. And I don't have an egg separator - I'm not skilled enough to do it without one!
- I didn't bake them in the oven, just the frying pan.

Some things I would change about this recipe next time:

• Add a little fresh garlic and tomato paste for flavoring.
• Add a little more salt since I used dried-cooked beans instead of canned (which typically have salt).
• I wasn't really sure what the 1/2 tsp of baking soda was for. Maybe to make them lighter and crisper? I did use it, but wondered what would happen if I left it out.

Here is what it looked like in the food processor with much of the ingredients


I was surprised that it looked gray (!), but concluded it was from the fresh corn and the white insides of the black beans.






And this is what it looked like cooked (looks pretty close to a hamburger!):


Served with garden tomatoes, avocado, and toast (the rice I was planning on serving didn't cook in time for this picture!)

I'm considering making dal next time. If you have any favorite dal recipes, let me know!