Black bean and kale burgers with a big KICK

I'll tell you about the kickin' cookin' in a minute. If you want to skip the recipe and go to the story, go down to the line divider. Otherwise, keep reading... Saturday night: I was making an approximation of this recipe from "Oh she glows," a great food / vegan blog. (And she originally got it here.)

I say an approximation of the recipe because I never follow recipes. I always adapt or change based on taste preferences, to add in extra veggies, or reduce the fat. I'm putting the version I made, below. (I increased the spices by quite a bit. Plus, I added kale for some greens, flax (for omega-3s), removed the oil, and added more oats because the burger mix, with my addition of kale, was way too moist.)

1-2 carrots
1 cup (frozen) kale
1-2 garlic clove(s)
1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia + 3 tbsp warm water, mixed well)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt
2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup dry rolled oats
1/3 cup ground flaxmeal


Directions: Preheat oven to somewhere between 300 and 350F*. Add carrots, garlic, and kale to the food processor and process until finely minced. Next, add pepitas and spices to your food processor and process until close to the texture you desire. (If you want the pepitas more chunky, then add these later.) Add 3/4 of the beans, the chia egg, 1/2 the oats, and the flax. Process until lightly mixed.

Spoon the mixture from the food processor into a mixing bowl and mix in (by hand) the rest of the beans and oats. Form into 10-12 good-sized patties. Place patties on a lined baking pan. (I use a silicone mat and I love my silicone baking mat. The one I linked to is close to what I have, but I can't find the particular mat I have.)

Bake the burgers at 325F for 30-40 minutes, turning once very carefully after 15-20 minutes (Note: The patties are fragile, but I think the addition of flax and extra oats makes these burgers more able to stick together than the original version.) Hint, use a metal spatula for getting underneath them to flip them.

(Note from the other blog, I haven't tried it. If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 20-30 minutes at 300F, then throw them on the grill to get a little extra cooking / browning.)

*My notes: I baked these in my convection oven at 300. It seems to take between 30 and 40 minutes to get these done depending on the moisture content of the carrot(s) and kale.

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Okay, so now I'll tell you about how things got really hot! It took me two attempts to make the burgers.

First time around, I was almost done mixing things. I had added the beans before I added all the spices and was working on putting in the remaining spices. I grabbed (what I thought was) the chili powder and poured in a big heaping tablespoon, maybe closer to 2. I started the food processor and went to search for the coriander.

As I found the coriander, I thought, "Ruh-oh, I think I put in cayenne pepper instead of chili powder." With trepidation, I tasted the mixture...whew, it's okay, 1,2,3 WHOA BABY! Nope, it was cayenne that I poured into the recipe in mass quantities. How did I manage that?

I stood and wrung my hands for a few seconds; I was very upset for having wasted so much food. I tried to think creatively so I decided to take most (3/4s) of the mixture out from the food processor to see if it would work as a bean dip. My oldest daughter, tried it and deemed it edible, nay really good, but with a big kick. (She thought it was hilarious that I said WHOA BABY when I tried it.) All my girls liked it as a bean dip and they ate quite a bit of it. They amused themselves with eating the dip and then trying to cool their mouths down. Oh to be 6, 7, and 10, again. Heh.

I was a little happier and I decided that the "accident" would work well spread on tortillas that could be stuffed with broccoli or spinach. Whew! The food was not wasted! (I can't wait to try this spread on tortillas! I'll let you know how it is.) (I love vegan cooking because you can eat stuff RAW!)

After pulling 3/4s of the burger mix out, adding in new ingredients, and re-making the burger mix, I still had really spicy burgers, but at least this time they weren't too hot to handle. These burgers are really good when you put in the right amount of cayenne. To end this really long post, here's a picture of the two jars of spice that managed to confuse me. Don't make the same mistake as me!

How embarrassing! At least it turned out tasty!

Approximate calories and nutrition analysis added 9/2017

to all things green

It's the first post. It'll probably be a little awkward, but then it'll be over and we can get on with things. This blog will be a place where I'll mostly muse about eating a plant-based diet, and share recipes and research on eating plant-based and being healthy! It's called very, very, very green because very green and very, very green were already taken. Someday, someone else will need to be very, very, very, very green, but that's not me. I'm only very x 3. Saying very3 times in a row is a little silly, but it's okay and I like the name because 3 is my favorite number--you'll learn about that along the way.

Back to the subject, I like it green! I am a huge fan of the taste of green. The greener the better! Kale, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, brussel sprouts, collard greens, asparagus, mustard greens, rapini, tatsoi, bok choy, oh how I love you all! (And we can't forget cucumbers, kiwi, edamame,and peas!!)

As I do more research, I'll also discuss a plant-based diet for kids. Last week, my oldest daughter decided to give up milk and all dairy products. She still eats eggs, but is quickly becoming plant-based. It's all good, I just want to make sure we do this plant-based (nearly vegan) thing right and that we are eating for optimal health. I have two other little lacto-ovo vegetarians in my house. Making sure these kidlets eat well is something very important to me.

I myself eat a completely plant-based diet and have for 2-ish years.  I started my transition to being plant-based/vegan in 2009, and realized it sometime in 2010. However, I have been working on making healthier food choices since 2000. I was vegetarian for my college years through 2000, and had a brief stint eating (some) meat when I was pregnant with the girls, but I've been vegetarian most of my adult life.

On other subjects, I'll occasionally talk about doing good (green) things for the earth. I try to do green things, but that's not the main focus of this blog, except, of course the intersection between eating green and being green. Eating green helps our planet. (See Holy Cow! What's Good for You Is Good for Our Planet, a short introduction to this concept, or even more.)

I'll also talk about exercise here, not because it's green (though you can wear a green outfit), but because I think being active and fit through exercise is as important to your body as putting good food in it. I hypothesize, that exercise can mitigate the effects of eating a poor diet (a little). We'll talk more about that another day, though. (I would have gone with the name dancing broccoli, but it's already taken.)

Okay, that's all for now, in the meantime, think green--very, very, very green!