Bean and couscous burgers

I love refried pinto beans but these burgers are very close behind. I replaced bulgur with couscous but I can see these made with quinoa, as well.

Bean and couscous burgers

adapted from Epicurious
serves 4
1/2 C chopped onion, divided
1/2 C couscous
about 1,5 C water (or less, depending on type of couscous)
1 C pinto beans, cooked
3/4 C walnuts
2 garlic cloves
1/2 C packed fresh cilantro
1,5 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper

Put the couscous in a heatproof bowl. Cook 1/4 C onion is some olive oil until golden, add the water and when it is boiling pour over couscous, cover and let sit until all water has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

I do not have a food processor so instead I mashed the beans and finely chopped the walnuts, cilantro and garlic. Blend together, add couscous, rest of the onion and all the spices. Form six burgers and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Heat some oil in a pan, cook the burgers until golden brown, turn around and cook until golden brown on the other side. Serve with your favourite burger sauce!

Beluga lentils

Beluga lentils are one of my favourite lentils. The taste is wonderful, earthy and they only need 20 minutes to be done, which for a legume is a very short time. Just put them in a sauce pan, cover with water and cook on a low temperature for 20 minutes, no pre-soaking needed. They do loose some of their black magical colour when cooked, but the taste compensates for the colour loss.

I found this lentil salad recipe in the Good Food magazine (Nov. 2008), love it!

Warm lentil salad

adapted from BBC Good Food

serves 2

1,5 dl Beluga lentils
6 big mushrooms

1 red pepper

1 shallot

4 salad leaves, whole
50 gr goat´s cheese (or other favourite cheese)

2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Put the Beluga lentils in a saucepan, cover with water and cook on low heat until done, about 20 minutes.
Mix lemon juice and mustard in a small bowl, slowly add olive oil, season with salt and pepper and set aside. Slice the mushrooms, shallot and cut the red pepper in small cubes. Heat some oil in a pan and cook mushrooms until they start softening, turn of the heat, add pepper, shallot and cooked lentils. Stir in the dressing and mix well.

On two plates arrange the salad leaves, spoon the lentil salad, add the cheese and serve!

Red pepper hummus

I have had a third of a jar of tahini (sesame paste) in my fridge for way to long time now. I use it only when making hummus so my use of it is quite limited. But in order to finally finish off that tahini jar I wanted a brand new hummus recipe. And I found it!

Hummus recipe I found on BBC Good Food calls for roasted red peppers. How delicious does not that sound? The recipe actually does not call for tahini at all, a bit strange but of course I added it. So with some minor changes this hummus recipe turned out so good that I am on my way to buy another tahini jar!

Red pepper hummus  
adapted from BBC Good Food
serves 2  
340 gr can chickpeas (with liquid)
2 red peppers
3 tbsp tahini
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper

Roast the red peppers in oven, 180 C for about 40 minutes. When done put in a small bowl and cover with plastic film and let set for about 15 minutes. Peel the peppers, drain the chickpeas (reserve liquid) and with rest of ingredients blend in a blender until you have a semi smooth paste. Add some of the chickpea liquid, adjust the seasoning and blend until smooth.

Or if you do not have a blender, mash the chickpeas with a fork, pass through a strainer (hell of a job but worth it). Chop finely the peeled peppers, add to mashed chickpeas. Grate the garlic and add with the rest of the ingredients to the chickpeas. Add some chickpea liquid and blend well everything

To serve, spread on a plate, drizzle with some olive oil and eat with your favourite vegetables and pita bread.

Mexican refried beans

Refried beans have the most confusing name a dish can have, ever. The first time I heard " frijoles refritos", as they are called in Mexico, I got a picture of beans that have been fried twice, with lots of oil (deep-frying amount of oil) involved. Makes no sense, I know.

And their English translation, refried beans, did not make it any easier neither. But one day after watching how they were being prepared everything became more clear. In short, refried beans are not re-fried and have nothing to do with deep-frying. Their name is just a result of another linguistic mess up.

Beans are first cooked in water until soft, like you would usually do with beans, then they are mashed, and then fried in a small amount of corn oil or lard (2-3 tbsp) with some onion and garlic. And when done you have the most delicious Mexican refried beans.

Frijoles refritos
serves 2
2 dl pinto beans, soaked overnight
1 small onion
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp corn oil

Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Cover with water and and simmer until soft. Do not add salt as salt hinders beans from becoming soft. Takes about 1 hour.
When done drain, but save about 2 dl liquid. In a pan fry the onion and garlic on a low heat until soft and translucent, add beans, bit of the liquid and mash everything until you have a paste. Add more of bean-liquid if necessary. Serve with totopos (corn tortillas wedges).

Red-bean paste

Being introduced to sweet red beans you can find the recipe for the wonderful red-bean paste here . I used white granulated sugar but a bit less of it and it worked fine.

On the picture you can see what the beans look like. They are very tiny and obviously there is a Chinese (hong-dou) and Japanese (adzuki) version but I think they are the same beans as Japanese use them in sweets as well. The paste it self is wonderful, it does have a hint of beans but is not like it reminds of chili con carne. Here I used it in crepes but I can see so much more potential here!