Black Bean Burgers

Sorry to be hogging the bloglight...but i've also been feeling ambitious like jill has.

Amazingly delicious. 8 minutes to make. 3 minutes to cook.

Black Bean Burger
(adapted from Cooking Light & snagged from someone else's cooking blog)

2 cups rinsed, drained, canned black beans
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (we had cheddar on hand)
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup cornmeal


Place 1 1/2 cups beans, garlic, and salt in a bowl. Partially mash with a fork. Place 1/2 cup remaining beans and egg white in a food processor. Process 30 seconds till well combined. Add bean puree to mashed beans in bowl and stir till combined. Add cheese and onion and stir till combined. Divide bean mixture into four parts and shape into patties. Place cornmeal in dish (or plate) and dredge both sides of patties.

Add oil or cooking spray to a skillet and cook patties till brown or for 3 mintues.

Notes: I was too lazy to get the food processor out and have to clean it after so i mashed eveyrthing with a fork and was satisfied that it would still taste just as delicious.

I don't know what the point of the cornmeal is, but I think it sort of helped hold these guys together. They are very fragile. i don't think it would be lacking much flavor without them.

I am terrible at estimating how/when things are cooked, but they started to smoke a little so I figured they were done...I hope you all have better judgement than me. ;)

THESE ARE DELICIOUS!! I topped mine with sour cream, avocado and more cheese. mmm..
the picture is my dinner. (salad is not shown). I cut up some tomatoes and also some herbed artichokes. (in the dish).

Salmon Burgers...just keep swimming, just keep swimming..

So, Andrew was in a for a brief weekend visit, and when I say brief, I picked him up at midway at 730pm friday and he had to fly out at 330 on sunday, so itwas like a day and a half. Not much time after being apart for 4.5 weeks, but much appreciated nonetheless. We'll see each other for five days in 3 weeks, so we can't be too sad. However, me trying to look on the bright side doesn't seem to keep me from getting mildly depressed anyways. So upon returning from the airport and moping around the house for a few hours, I decided to get my cooking on. It seems to cheer me up and certainly puts my mind on something else. Or at least it satisfies one craving...

I usually put music on when I cook, but this tiime, I needed more visual distration, so I put on Barefoot Contessa. Watching TV and cooking is a tad tricky...but salmon burgers are easy.

Salmon Burgers - makes four patties
1 can (15 oz) salmon
3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Fresh parsley chopped (or shredded, whatever your method)
2 egg whites

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with hands. Make patties. Put in a frying pan with a little olive oil and cook till browned.
that's all folks. easy as pie. i really hope I am not forgetting an ingredient...i'm doing this from memory at work.

Side notes: We happend to have fresh grilled salmon that needed to get uesd up so I used that instead of canned, which is perfectly acceptable. The egg whites are what keep the patties held together, make sure you get as much egg white as your can without getting the yolk. Yes, it's a lot of garlic, but man does it taste good...

In case you're wondering, in the Barefoot Contessa I was watching while cooking, she made bleu cheese burgers on the grill, east hampton clam chowder (which I am going to attempt to make as well...) guacamole salad, and ice cream shakes.