Black bean cakes with avocado and yogurt sauce

I find it hard to believe that the first month of this new year is already over. For me this month was mostly about unusually cold weather, of either me or A being sick and blogging much lesser than I would have liked. So in a way I am glad that January is over and I am going to pretend that its the start of the new year all over again with February (I know we are a little into Feb as well but thats ok by me). With this new beginning I am making a few New Year resolutions too. They include more cooking, more blogging and more reading. Not necessarily in that order but lets see which one gets done more.

Aditya came up with this idea for the black bean cakes based on a somewhat similar dish he tried at a local restaurant. So we decided to give this a try for lunch today by raiding the refrigerator and finding everything that could go into these. We ended up using a carrot, some corn and a can of black beans for the cakes. We were both tired of eating bread so we decided to top these with a little bit of shredded cabbage and top it with an avocado sauce. The avocado sauce was inspired by both guacamole and sour cream and we made it by blending avocado with some mint and jalapeno along with yogurt. The end result was quite satisfying. Heres the recipe.

Black Bean Cakes:

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 jalapeno, deseeded and minced

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 cup corn

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

lime juice of 1/2 a lime

2 tablespoons corn meal

- Heat around a tablespoon oil in a pan.

- Add garlic and onion and saute for 2-3 minutes.

- Add jalapeno and carrot and saute for another 2-3 minutes.

- Add corn, followed by salt and black beans.

- Sprinkle with a little bit of water and cook covered till the beans and carrots are soft.

- Puree 3/4 of the mixture and mix in with the remainder.

- Add corn meal (vary quantity depending on the wetness of the dough). Refrigerate for 10-15 mins so that mixture binds well.

- Use 1/3rd cup measures to spoon into patties.

- Coat with a little cornmeal/semolina and cook till brown on both sides with the remaining oil.

Avocado and Yogurt sauce

1 Avocado, chopped into chunks

1/2 jalapeno, deseeded and minced

1 tablespoon mint, chopped

lime juice of 1/2 a lime

2 tablespoons yogurt

1/2 teaspoon salt

- Combine all ingredients and puree together.

Serve the black bean cakes, topped with a little bit of shredded cabbage and the avocado sauce.

Makes 4 cakes.