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.

Ten Minute Tacos

I would like to make a recommendation before embarking on my ten minute taco recipe. If you like tacos and you are around the Triangle area, you must try the Taqueria La Vaquita in Durham. Its a cute little shack with a huge plastic cow on the roof. There's very limited outside seating but the food is fresh, simple and really good! Their tacos have handmade tortillas, flavorful fillings and come topped with radishes, onions and cilantro. Very good!

Image above is from http://lavaquitanc.com

But with all the rain and cold weather we have here now, outdoor seating is a thing of the past and the Taqueria is currently out of reach. So I tried to satisfy taco cravings at home with this super fast black bean salad taco. I made the salad by combining all the taco filling ingredients together and dressing them with some lime juice and spices. I had some radishes and lettuce from our CSA this week which made a great addition to this salad. I didn't have any cilantro or jalapenos on hand but they would definitely be super in this too. For the taco shells, I used corn tortillas from Trade Joe's. Incidentally A found that microwaving these with a damp paper napkin makes them seem almost as fresh as the tacos at at La Vaquita. Almost :)

Ingredients:

1 14oz can of black beans, rinsed well and drained
1 avocado
1 tomato
1/4 onion
2 small radishes
1 cup, chopped lettuce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
juice of 1/2 lime

8 corn tortillas

- Chop the avocado, tomato, onions and radishes and combine with the black beans.
- Add the lime juice, salt and all the spices. Mix well, adjusting spices as per preference.
- Microwave the corn tortillas, covered with a moist paper napkin.
- Spoon the black bean salad filling on the taco shells and serve!

Makes 8 tacos.