Cannellini Bean Meatballs

I love a good meatball.  Yes I do.  Smothered in tomato sauce, in spaghetti or on a bun.  I saw this recipe and since my new resolution has been to focus on more meatless meals, I thought I'd give a whirl.  I adapted it to fit our dietary needs.

Adapted from the kitchen of Cookin Canuck. www.cookincanuck.com

  Ingredients

  2 cups Cannellini Beans cooked

  1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

  2 tsp. onion powder

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 TBSP dried parsley

  1 ½ tsp dried oregano

  1 egg

  ½ cup dried GF breadcrumbs

  ½ tsp kosher salt

  ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

  3 cups spaghetti sauce (your favorite kind)

  Parmesan cheese for grating (Eat in the Raw parma for a dairy free option)

  Method

  Cook your GF spaghetti, rinse with cold water and set aside

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

   Thoroughly coat a large baking sheet with Spectrum Shortening

  In the bowl of a food processor, combine beans and dried tomatoes. 

  Pulse until chopped, but not smoothly pureed.(although, you can if you like!)

  Scrap out of blender and combine with onion, garlic, parsley, oregano, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper until well combined, in a medium bowl

  Using a spoon, scoop a portion of the bean mixture, form “meatballs” by rolling between the palms of your hands (I suggest greasing hands) . Place the “meatballs” on the prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly.

  Bake until the meatballs are firm to the touch and have developed a light golden brown coating, 15 to 25 minutes depending on the size you make them.

  In a large saucepan, heat you favorite spaghetti sauce over medium heat until simmering. Add “meatballs” and stir to coat. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, 10 to 15 minutes, add in pasta to warm.

  Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

(My boys loved these so much, even the grown-up boy, that I made a triple batch and froze them for easy meals!!!!)

Black Bean Burgers

I recently posted about how I soaked black beans... for the very first time... here.  And now, dang it all, I have to actually DO something with the equivalent of 6 cans of beans!  No, no, just kidding, in all truth I already have a huge stack of recipes to try with black beans. 'Cause I am the recipe junkie, remember?

Now, my dearest and I, did NOT grow up eating beans.  Also, I am just a wee, bit texture sensitive and beans seem super mushy to me.  But I really want to expand my boy's diets and beans seem a good way to go.

The first recipe I am tackling is a Black Bean Burger Recipe.  It was recommended to me by a good friend who has a child with similar food allergies.  Her family LOVED it.  So I combed the internet and found several recipes.  Basically it consists of black beans (well duh!), bread crumbs, an egg, some seasonings.

After some tweaking, here is what I came up with:

Black Bean Burgers Allergen free version

3 cups soaked and cooked black beans
1/2 onion minced or 2 tsp onion powder
2 garlic cloves or 2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer or 1 egg
2 tsp chili powder (or less if this is too spicy for you!)
1/2 to 1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup bread crumbs (GF of course)

Optional:
pepper
Tabasco sauce (I added three good shakes)

I simply pulsed all the ingredients in my blender then blended on high until I was happy with the consistency

I was Scared, but I Got Over It!

How many of you grew up eating beans?  I didn't, nor did my dearest.  It doesn't help that I have a bit of squeamishness about the mushy texture of beans.  It could be that I have only eaten canned beans, where as, dry beans soaked and cooked at home are a lot less mushy. 

I have been scared at trying to cook beans at home and, well, that my family might not eat them.  But seeing the price difference between canned and dry beans, I felt I finally had to give it a go.

I have been trying to figure out more meatless meals while keeping the meal balanced with protein, so beans seemed like the most likely route to make a nutritious/balanced meal that is meatless.  Also, I had a couple people to tell me to try this or that recipe....  Remember, I am a recipe junkie?  I have a great friend whose recipes I always love, who keeps giving me black bean recipes to try.  Also, the two recipes recommended to me lately by various people are black bean brownies and black bean burgers by various.  Both were said to be out of this world, so I figured black beans (aka turtle beans) would be a good place to start.

I followed this tutorial on soaking and cooking beans by Wardeh on GNOWFGLINS.  I searched all over the web and this is the BEST one I found.  Easiest to do, easiest to understand.

Here are some photos of my attempt.

rinsing the beans