Bean Cakes

2X300g cans of cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
100g Edam cheese cut into very small cubes
50g pine nuts, lightly toasted
5 spring onions, chopped
2tbsp sun dried tomato paste
75g fresh bread crumbs
1 medium egg, beaten
1tbsp sunflower oil

For the tomato relish:
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
3tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
1tbsp olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon

Put the beans in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork. Add the Edam, pinenuts, onion, tomato paste and a third of the breadcrumbs. Season and stir to combine the ingredients.
Using your hands, shape the mixture into eight burgers. Coat each one with beaten egg and remaining breadcrumbs. Transfer to a plate, cover and chill for about 20 min.
Mix together the ingredients for the tomato relish in a small bowl and season.
Heat the sunflower oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add the burgers. Fry for 3-4 min on each side until golden and heated through. Drain on kitchen paper.

This comes from Good Housekeeping Magazine
. I was unsure about trying these because I love bean burgers when they are good, but so many of them wind up tasting bland and having a pasty texture. Still, I have had some good experiences with Good Housekeeping recipes in the past, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I’m glad I tried it. These were really good. They were just what you want from a bean burger. They had a good depth of flavor, I think that’s due to the sun dried tomato paste, and the edam (I love edam). They also had a great texture because the breadcrumb coating gave the outside a good crunch, while the inside had the melted cheese to keep it from being too uniform. Then there was the bonus of the tomato relish, which was sooo good.

I decided to use a food processor to mash the beans because I was in a hurry. I think that if you do it by hand it would have an even better texture, but I liked it just fine coming from the processor. I will probably use one again next time I make them (I’ll make them again). I also used sun dried tomatoes instead of sun dried tomato paste. I just ran them through the processor first to make them into a paste.

I had the left over one the next day for lunch, and it was just as good. This is a nice bean burger recipe. I recommend it.