Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Black-Bean Cutlets With Jalepeno-Corn Gravy


Oh. My. God. I know the photo is a little dark, and the corn gravy looks super-yellow, but this was one of my favorite meals in a long time. I have a bunch of black beans in the freezer, and was skimming V-con to try to figure out something to do with them. I've made the black-bean burgers from there before, but I was wanting something slightly different this time. That's when I happened upon the recipe for jalepeno-corn gravy. Sounded very interesting. I thought it may be good with a thinner bean burger, more like the chickpea cutlets. So, I thought I'd just do the burger recipe and make them thinner. I also decreased the wheat gluten to 1/4 cup. I don't like the chewy texture that 1/2 cup gives the patty. It grosses me out a little. So, I added in a little extra breadcrumbs to make up for it. Then I pan-fried them just like I do the chickpea cutlets. I made mashed potatoes to go with them, and poured the gravy over everything. It was out-of-control! I swear! So freaking good. This will be in regular rotation, I'm sure. It's all so easy to make too.

I had some bananas that were getting way over-ripe, so yesterday afternoon I decided to make some banana bread and muffins. My favorite recipe, from a Southern Living cookbook, isn't the healthiest. So I modified the recipe to make it as healthy as possible while also making it vegan. Here's what I did:

3.5 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup of turbinado sugar
2 1/4 cups mashed banana (about 4 large bananas)
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the rest of ingredients in a medium bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix until everything is moist. For muffins, spoon batter into greased muffin pan, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes a dozen muffins. For the bread, spoon batter into a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for an hour. I added some organic, dark-chocolate chips to the loaf batter. YUM!

2 comments:

carrie said...

That gravy sound so interesting.....yet another reason to buy V-con I guess!!

We love banana bread, and since you've already gone to the trouble of veganizing the recipe, I'll for sure have to try it out soon.

Chessa said...

Oooh, that gravy sounds intriguing! Gonna have to mark that one down to try. :D