A few weeks ago Serena of Big Apple Nosh announced something called the NoshGirl Chef Challenge. She lines up three participants and then announces three ingredients. The objective is to create something using those two ingredients. I was a little nervous about it because I still don’t know if I understand how people “create” recipes, but I wanted to participate anyway. The first challenge was here, with some impressive results that I’m not sure I lived up to. The second challenge, which I am participating in, was announced three days ago and I served my creation for lunch yesterday.

My ingredients?

Avocado and Cornmeal

I wanted to avoid doing something sweet due to all of the dieting I’m doing (though some sort of sweet cornbread muffin with avocado crossed my mind) and after a little bit of brainstorming I decided to go with a black bean veggie burger with cornmeal and avocado.

First I’ll show you some pictures that walk you through the process, then post the recipe below.

I started by pre-soaking my beans. Black beans prepared from scratch are so much tastier than those you find in a can, and they are cheaper too! After they were soaked, rinsed, and boiled, I set them aside to cool down and dry out a little bit.

I was making a lot at once (that’s always how I cook) so don’t stress about the pictured portions. I tried to write it out for a smaller portion below. I used the food processor to blend up some onions and garlic.

And then added a red pepper. I added so much garlic that it burned my eyes, but TH said it tasted delicious in the end so I guess it was good that I made it a garlic bomb. Don’t worry, my written recipe below uses less garlic.

I beat my egg.

And then I stirred together my veggies, bread crumbs, cornmeal, egg, spice, and a little bit of sauces.

I started preheating the oven and forming my hamburger cups. I learned this trick from a food blog a few years ago and it’s the perfect way to shape burger patties!

After 10 minutes in the oven it was time to layer everything on my toasted bakery buns. While the burgers were cooking I blended chives, cream cheese, and greek yogurt together. Don’t you dare make these burgers without making the accompanying spread. It made the meal!

See how those avocado chunks are embedded into the top of the patty? This is where I feel genius struck for me. Avocado is slippery and when you add it to a burger it slips all over. Some bites have avocado, and some bites don’t. This not only ensured that the avocado chunks were warm and a bit melty, but that I was able to get a bit of avocado with every bite!

Finally some natural light! Doesn’t that look delicious? We ate ours with some baked corn chips and guacamole on the side.

Avocado Cornmeal Black Bean Burger Patties

Makes 4 patties

Ingredients

1/2 lb of dried black beans, soaked/cooked/cooled, or 1 16oz can
1 bell pepper
1 onion
1/4 head of garlic
1 egg, scrambled
1 tablespoon cumin
3 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 avocado cut into squares

Directions

1. Blend together onion, garlic, and bell pepper in food processor. Strain excess juice (I didn’t do this, but wish I had.)
2. Add 3/4 black beans to onion/garlic/pepper mixture, blend until smooth. Mash up remaining black beans with a fork.
3. Stir black beans, pureed veggie/bean mix, and egg together. Stir in cumin and barbecue sauce, and then add the cornmeal and bread crumbs.
4. Form molds for burger patties, spray molds with olive oil/cooking spray, scoop patty mixture into molds.
5. Cook in 400° oven for approximately 6 minutes, remove from the oven and flip patties over, cook for another 6 minutes. Don’t overcook or they will dry out!

Chive Yogurt Spread

Makes enough for liberal application on 4 burgers

Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese
1 package (.75 oz) fresh chives
8 heaping tablespoons Greek yogurt
Garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Directions

Pour all ingredients into food processor. Blend until creamy.

 

Spread the yogurt spread on a toasted bun, add the black bean patty, and top with lettuce and tomato. Enjoy!

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You’ll hear from me about this again sometime next week. I’m hoping you’ll be willing to vote for me so Serena will send me some cookies as a prize!

P.S.-And a big thank you to Serena for including my Weddingbee moniker . She is Mrs. Hamster!