Motherf**king Black bean Brownies

I got the idea for this recipe this weekend after I visited Plato's Harvest Farms where our intern Sasha and her husband David own and operate an organic farm. We got there at 10am, planted potatoes, spring onions, and leeks and enjoyed a delicious pot-luck lunch, the crowning feature of which was one of the farm hands' incredible black bean brownies. I immediately asked her what she put in them, she gave me the basic run-down and when I came home I did some research into recipes.

I took a recipe off of 101 Cookbooks.com and modified it to include all that tasty shit that the farm hand said was in hers. This is the result:

Amazing Black Bean Brownie Recipe

4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter (I put in a vegan butter subsitute)
1 can of black beans, well drained
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup ground coffee or espresso
¼ teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1 cup maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9x9 inch greased pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on high. Stir with a spoon to melt the chocolate completely. Place the beans, 1/2 cup of the walnuts, the vanilla extract, and a couple of spoonfuls of the melted chocolate mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Blend about 2 minutes, or until smooth. The batter should be thick and the beans smooth. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup walnuts, remaining melted chocolate mixture, coffee substitute, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer beat the eggs until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the agave nectar and beat well. Set aside.

Add the bean/chocolate mixture to the coffee/chocolate mixture. Stir until blended well.

Add the egg mixture, reserving about 1/2 cup. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1/2 cup egg mixture until light and fluffy. Drizzle over the brownie batter. Use a wooden toothpick to pull the egg mixture through the batter, creating a marbled effect. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the brownies are set. Let cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares. (They will be soft until refrigerated.)

Makes 45 (2-inch) brownies.

Banana Walnut Pancakey Goodness

This is a simple home-made pancake recipe modified with some tasty things I had in the house...

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 or 2 bananas, mashed
  
• two handfuls of chopped walnuts
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
  

Directions

1. In a large bowl, put all dry ingredients and the banana together. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter (I've substituted olive oil for this recipe and it works great); mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Vegan Veggie Burgers

Making veggie burgers without eggs can be a challenge but I found this sweet recipe for vegan veggie burgers on a highschooler's blog.

• 2-3 tortillas, toasted (depending on size)
• 15 oz can lentils (or 3/4 c. lentils, cooked)
• 15 oz can black beans
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp organic vegetable bouillon base
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 2 cups broccoli florets*
• 1 red bell pepper, roasted*
• 1 tsp xanthen gum (optional)
• Salt, pepper and paprika
• 1/3- 1/2 c. bread crumbs

The list below is what I made it with, topped with kale, and with squash and sweet potato soup and homemade bread on the side. I think the burgers would definitely be better with bell peppers and a little mustard though.

• 3/4 c. lentils, cooked
• a jalepeno and another tiny spicy pepper
• 1.5 cans black beans
• 1 can garbanzos
  
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• minced onions
  
• 1/2 tsp organic vegetable bouillon base
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• Salt, pepper
• 1/3- 1/2 c. bread crumbs

After packing it all together, I rolled each burger in breadcrumbs again which gave them a nice crispy outside. Cooked 'em at 375 for about 30 min.

Tahini Dressing (the ambrosia of the working class)

People familiar with "Annie's Goddess Dressing" will recognize the taste of this recipe because it's almost exactly the same...except not $6 a bottle.

You should think of this as hummus without the garbanzo beans. Very versatile sauce that, once made, you can use with almost anything you want. I've used it as a massage oil various times and each time I get compliments on its viscosity and garlicky smell.

The comments are usually something to the effect of "why is this massage oil so thick and smelly!?" Then I get slapped.

I also use it as a "green and bean" salad dressing.

Check it out...

1 garlic clove (mashed and chopped)
1/4 c. tahini
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp hot water
salt
lemon zest (optional)

put all ingredients into a bowl except for the hot water. Put the hot water in last, mix around with a whisk or fork and watch as the magic of chemistry makes everything combine into a beautiful puke-colored sauce.

That's it.

Hummus you will kill for...literally

Alright, so we're all feeling the sharp sting of the recession, but hey, let's look at the bright side, ok?...OK!?

Great. So this is a time when a plethora of opportunities to start anew arise. For example, you can:

1. Intern at a non-profit until you decide what to do with your life (CAI internships available here)!
2. Travel to Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe or many other 3rd world countries to "find yourself" by doing "development" projects. Those stupid underdeveloped people will gladly help find you...
3. Go back to grad school and get that masters in social anthropology with a focus on gender studies concentrating on ecological imperialism so that you can emerge two years later with a greater understanding of the problems you already knew about!
4. Cook things for yourself by buying (shudder) ingredients and (shiver) putting them together into a (gasp) recipe.

Here's an excellent hummus recipe for those of you who wish to avoid throwing away thousands of dollars at Trader Joe's for their expensive (though delicious) hummus.

You'll need:

A food processor (or strong forearms)
2 tbsp tahini (it's like peanut butter except with sesame seeds. Look it up)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves mashed/chopped garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 8 oz. can garbanzo beans
Sprinkle of paprika or parsley as a garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Cool. This is possibly the easiest recipe of all time.

Put everything except for the garbanzo beans into the food processor. Open the can of garbanzo beans and empty all but 1/4 of that yummy bean juice. Now dump the beans and remaining juice into the food processor. Process, and voila! Hummus!

Note: the consistency of the hummus is going to depend on the combination of oil, tahini, and water, so for a thick hummus, add more oil and tahini, and for a thinner hummus, add more bean juice.

As for the garnish, some experiments we've done to spice this recipe up are:

1. Adding cumin and honey for a sweet and spicy hummus
2. Adding tomato paste and/or sundried tomato spread
3. Adding rando herbage like Italian Herbs, basil, parsley, or rosemary

All are tasty. Enjoy the hummus and that delicious sense of accomplishment!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos

Alright, I promised I would put this recipe out by internet means. Here we go.

The basic idea here is that you want to make a paste that tastes good, put it in a tortilla with some cheese, and then eat it. I'm pretty sure this is a fundamental human desire.

Ingredients:

• Two sweet potatoes.
• One yellow onion or sweet onion. Either works.
• One of the big cans of black beans. Not the sixteen ounce ones, the jumbo cheap goya ones.
• 3 or so cloves of garlic.
• A substantial amount of olive oil.
• Salt, cumin, maybe some chili powder, figure it out yourself why don't you?

Also:

• Cheddar cheese
• Tortillas

So this is real easy. In fact, you can probably tell what's going to happen just by looking at the ingredients list.

1. Chop everything up. Mince the garlic, chop the onion into strips, sweet potatoes into little cubes (centimeter and a half?). Fryable size.
2. Fry it in olive oil. Garlic first, till brown, then add the onions, till soft. Then the sweet potatoes, till they get tender but not mushy. Keep adding olive oil throughout, preferably an excessive amount.
3. Pour in the black beans, juice and all. Bring it to a simmer. Heat down, just enough to keep it simmering.
4. Go grate some cheese. Come back and stir the bean thing with a spatula occasionally. You want to hit the point where the beans start breaking open and letting their goop out. It'll turn into a nice blobby mass, which if you've put in enough olive oil will basically not stick to the walls of the pan at all. Like I said, a lot of olive oil.
5. Somewhere during that last step, spice it. Add cumin. Add salt. Add whatever else you're into.
6. You thought that was enough cumin and salt, but you were wrong. Add more.
7. Have I mentioned that cumin has been scientifically proven to cure depression, gonorrhea, and amputation? More.
8. Take it off, let it cool. Eat it in a tortilla with cheese.
9. Put the rest in the fridge, clean up.
10. Wait twelve hours.
11. Fart copiously and joyously.

You're welcome.