Black bean burgers

It's going to be a busy week, so I made a batch of Happy Herbivore's Quick and Easy Black Bean Burgers. I cooked up some black beans in the crock pot today, so fresh black beans were at the ready.

Ready for the oven:

And out of the oven, nearly the same!  Not to mention that they look like cookies, which made me wish they were cookies.  But when I'm hungry for lunch, I will be glad to have one of these instead of a cookie.  Okay, I'll wish I had one of these AND a cookie.

These babies are cooling their jets in the fridge until later this week.  Knowing they are there makes me happy.  They are a little delicate, so be careful when flipping them over.

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• ⅓ cup instant oats

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. In a mixing bowl, mash black beans with a fork until mostly pureed but still some half beans and bean parts are left. Stir in condiments and spices until well combined. Then mix in oats. Divide into 4 equal portions and shape into thin patties. Bake for 7 minutes, carefully flip over and bake for another 7 minutes, or until crusty on the outside. Slap into a bun with extra condiments and eat!

An old standby

I have undoubtedly featured calzones before on my other blog, but an old friend deserves a repeat.  I first came across calzones when I worked at Zio's Pizzeria in Omaha, circa 1988.*  They had wonderful pizza, but I really fell for the calzones.  And since working at Zio's, I've been a proponent of ricotta in calzones.  It ain't a calzone without ricotta, which I know garners strong opinions on both sides from calzone enthusiasts.

Veganizing calzones became much more possible with the advent of Daiya.  The ricotta component proved a bit more challenging.  While I'll admit it's not the same, tofu ricotta does provide somewhat of the same texture as ricotta.

I use Giada's pizza dough recipe and have for years.  I'm lazy when it comes to dough, and this recipe provides good results.  It makes a nice, crunchy crust and is easy to work with.

Then, just stuff them to your heart's content.  Typical fillings for me include mushrooms, black olives, onion, bell pepper and broccoli.  Gotta have the broccoli, another Zio's holdover.  Cheese and marinara, of course.

Ready to go into the oven:

20 minutes at 450 degrees and they look like this:

Cut 'em open and top with more marinara and cheese and bake another 10 minutes:

Try to hold off a few minutes or you'll burn your mouth!

 

*I learned to toss dough at Zio's, and we had to wear chef's hats.  Mortifying, but as far as I know, there is no photo documentation of me in said chef's hat.  Digital photos are great, but I am thankful that certain instances in my life lack photographic documentation.