Meatless Monday: Black Bean-Quinoa Fiesta Patties

Need a meal for your Meatless Monday dinner tonight? Try this quick and easy Fiesta Patty. Made from pantry staples, you won't even need to run to the store to throw this delicious meal together.

Black Bean-Quinoa Fiesta Patties
Makes 10 patties

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 C. cooked quinoa
1/2 C. frozen organic corn
1/2 onion, diced small
1 roasted red pepper, diced small
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried cilantro
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
2 T. whole wheat flour

In a large bowl, smash beans with a fork until no whole beans are left. Add all remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Mash all ingredients together using hands until gluten becomes active and is beginning to hold patties together. Shape measure out 1/4 cup of mixture and shape into a small patty. Continue forming patties until all mixture is used (I got 10 patties from this). Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium heat. Lightly fry each patty until browning, flip and brown other side.

I served the patties on top of a whole wheat tortilla then topped each with a dollop of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream and a drizzle of salsa. You could also wrap the patties in a tortilla and eat like a taco. Enjoy!

Smoky Chipotle Black Bean Soup

The idea for this soup came from a similar soup that they serve at Whole Foods Market. As you all know, Stella loves anything that contains beans, and she's developed a taste for the spicy as well. She loves this soup from WFM, and of course was thrilled to have it prepared for her at home!!

Smoky Chipotle Black Bean Soup

2 cups dried black beans

1 Tbs Cumin

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

2 Tbs olive oil

1/2 cup onion, roughly diced

1/4 cup celery, roughly diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped

2 Tbs adobo sauce

4 cups vegetable stock

Rinse beans, cover with water and soak for 8 hours, or over night. When ready to prepare soup, drain beans. In medium sized soup pot add soaked beans, cumin, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cook beans for 30-45 minutes, or until done. In meantime, heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add onion and celery, and saute until beginning to brown. Add garlic, stir and cook a minute more. Add chipotles, adobo sauce and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. When beans are cooked pour beans with their cooking liquid into soup pot, stir to combine, then puree with a hand blender (or in batches in your food processor). Serve with a dollop of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, and a few avocado slices.

Black Bean Burgers

With all of the money spent for the Easter weekend cooking extravaganza, I hesitate to go back to the store for groceries for this week. I spent nearly a weeks worth of grocery money just buying food for the weekend. With the exception of going to the store to buy some fresh fruit and veg, this week's meals are coming from whatever I have on hand, so don't expect anything too exciting.

Last night we had black bean burgers. I had gotten the recipe from V-con a few weeks ago, and this recipe is loosely based on that. I had some mashed potatoes left from Saturday night's dinner so I chopped up some scallions, red pepper and garlic and turned those into hash browns to accompany the burgers. And of course, our ever present side of broccoli (it's the only thing green, aside from avocado, that my kids will eat).

Rob and I both concurred that the burgers were good, but slightly lacking in flavor. However, these burgers were devoured by the kids (and Mairin despises beans), so I hesitate to spice up the recipe any. I've decided that my kids just don't like "big" flavors. I hope it's just a phase, as "big" flavors are served quite frequently here. I'll share the recipe below, but you'll likely want to spice it up a bit to suit your tastes. A little chili powder and possibly some lime juice would do nicely.

Black Bean Burgers

2 cups black beans, mashed

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

1/3 cup Fire Roasted Salsa

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, kneading until wheat gluten is incorporated and a stringy texture forms. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Form burger mixture into 6 patties. Brown patties on both side. Patties will be firm to the touch when finished.

I served our patties topped with salsa and avocado slices. They would also be good stuffed inside pita bread with lettuce, tomato, avocado and salsa. Really I think the possibilities are endless with this recipe.

Spicy Black Beans 'n Rice

Before we get to tonight's dinner, let's go back to the Thai fried rice from last night. If you are going to make this recipe, make sure you have left-overs. I warmed up the extras for lunch today. This rice is even more tasty the second day (actually, I ate some of the left-overs cold, and they were mighty tasty that way as well).

OK, on to tonight. Inspired by the Dalai Mama's Beans n' Cornbread, I made spicy black beans 'n rice. I had planned to make cornbread to go with it as well, but again, as I was getting my stuff together this morning to get organized for dinner I realized that I was out of canola oil. This was apparently a bad organizational week for me. I have no idea how I overlooked that I was missing ingredients for two planned meals. Well, with only olive oil on hand, I had to scratch the plans for cornbread.....don't think it'd taste quite the same with olive oil, ya know??

This was a very delicious, very flavorful meal. And also very quick and easy. Mairin will only touch beans if she doesn't know she's eating them, which wasn't the case with this. So, this meal was a no go for her. I served Stella beans 'n rice, only I dished out her beans before I mixed 'em in with the good stuff!! Rob and I both enjoyed the meal, although, I think it could have been a little less spicy......I'd definitely reduce the amount of cayenne next time. Rob, on the other hand liked it how it was. I served it over some steamed medium grain brown rice, although you could use any rice you have on hand.

Spicy Black Beans

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes

6 cups cooked black beans, drained

3 Tbs ground cumin

1 Tbs smoky paprika

1 Tbs cayenne (this is how much I used, I suggest less, unless you like a lot of spice)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat 2 Tbs EVOO over medium-high heat. Add onions and green pepper and saute until beginning to soften. Add garlic and saute for a minute more. Add undrained tomatoes, beans, and spices. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve over rice.

A Nice Evening for a Bowl of Chili, and a Bonfire

It was cold today. And worse than that, it was cold and gray. It was truly a stereotypical fall day. It was a perfect day for a bowl (or 2) of chili. We'd been invited to a Halloween/Fall party and bonfire and we were to bring a dish to share. Chili was what I brought to share.

I make a Vegetable 3-Bean Chili. It's my adaptation of a recipe that I got off of a Rachael Ray episode. I know how a lot of my fellow bloggers feel about RR, but I like her. Granted she doesn't make a lot of vegetarian friendly meals, but she does inspire a lot of people to cook at home and that's far better than running by the local fast food joint.

Anyway, I don't know the exact recipe (I've been making it so long I kind of know it by heart now), and I don't have exact measurements because I basically just make it by taste, but here's a pretty close guesstimate:

2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or EVOO in Rachael Ray speak)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper (or hot pepper of your choice), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced.
sea salt
1 Tbs ground cumin
2 Tbs chili powder (plus more to taste)
5 cups vegetable stock
2 cups cooked kidney beans
2 cups cooked black beans
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 can vegetarian refried beans

Heat oil in a large soup pot. Saute peppers, onion and garlic until vegetables begin to soften. Season with salt, cumin and chili powder and cook for about a minute more. Deglaze pot with vegetable stock. Then add in kidney beans, black beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer. Let simmer for awhile (I don't really know how long, just until you are about ready to eat I guess). Stir in 1 can of refried beans to thicken chili. Taste and season accordingly with more chili powder and/or salt.


I also made the Chipotle Lime 2-Bean Hummus from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan to bring along and share. I let Rob have a sample after I whirled it up in the food processor, and he couldn't stop eating it. It really did turn out delicious, and we have plenty left over (I made a double batch) to snack on tomorrow. I think next time I will add slightly more chipotle hot sauce, but other than that, it was perfect. We dipped tortilla chips in it, but we're going to be trying it very soon as a burrito filling.