Black Bean-Chipotle Burgers

Today, while I was at work, one of our cats had apparently had enough with the dog and chased her down the stairs, then for good measure, attacked her by jumping on her. I see...the upstairs belongs to the cats. Steph relayed the events to me over text message. Unfortunately, it happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that video was impossible. This is why I propose putting one of those helmet cams on the dog and/or cats. This way we don't miss any of the hilarity.

Not our helmet-cam. Also, not our dog. Also, definitely not our rug.

Speaking of hilarity, we tried making burgers out of something that isn't ground beef. In my experience, this is always difficult. We have a fine curry-chicken burger recipe that is great, but we have to cook it on the stove-top or we'll just end up feeding our BBQ. We followed the recipe below for yummy sounding Black Bean-Chipotle Burgers. It had the word chipotle in it, so I was all aboard! The idea is you cook a black bean patty and serve it on a tostada shell with some lettuce, and if your heart desires, salsa, cheese, avocado, etc. Unfortunately, the patties did not hold up while cooking at all. The end result ended much more like taco salad. This was the sole piece of patty that ended up holding together.

Trust me...the picture in the book looked exactly like this.

The rest was in the grill pan like this...

Complete loss of structural integrity.

I'm not sure what we did wrong. You're supposed to let the patties cool but maybe we didn't let them cool long enough. Also, you're supposed to mash half the beans, but should we have mashed more? Maybe we could have added something to make it hold together.

Now that said, the end result was delicious...just not as intended. We'll have to take another crack at it some other time.

Connor says: I ate a bunch of the leftover brown rice that wasn't used in the recipe. I still had room for some of this and I really liked it. Then I wanted a bowl of crushed ice.

Makes 4 burgers

1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup whole kernel corn, thawed
1 cup corn chips, finely crushed (about 1/2 cup crushed)
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup bottled chunky salsa
1/2 to 1 tsp finely chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Finely shredded green cabbage
4 tostada shells, heated according to package directions
Bottled chunky salsa, dairy sour cream, fresh cilantro leaves, crumbled queso fresco, and/or avocado slices

1) In a medium bowl mash half the beans with a potato masher or pastry blender until well mashed. Add remaining beans, corn, corn chips, rice, onion, the 1/4 cup salsa, chipotle peppers, cumin, and garlic.

2) Shape mixture into four 3 1/2-inch patties, about 3/4 inch thick. Place patties on a tray; cover and chill at least 60 minutes before cooking.

3) Brush both sides of patties with olive oil. Cook in a very large skillet over medium heat for 10 minutes or until heated through, turning once.

4) Place some shredded cabbage on each tostada shell. Place the burgers on the cabbage and top with additional salsas, sour cream, cilantro, cheese, and/or avocado slices.