Black Bean Cakes are a vegetarian dream packed with protein, affordable and full of flavor!
Getting a lot of protein when you’re a vegetarian isn’t always easy. Most restaurants load you down with tons of bread and pasta or offer you bland tofu or bean dishes. Often when cooking at home you rely on the same few recipes that you know your family will eat rarely making vegetarian cuisine a win. We have been making Black Bean Cakes since Kenya was just a lanky toddler. He would sit there holding on to his Black Bean Cakes with two little hands nibbling and babbling away. It still makes me so happy to think about I want to eat him up!
For this Rewind Wednesday I wanted to share one of our all time favorites. Yes, they’re a super friendly toddler recipe, but also a hit with adults. You can stack them high and layer them with plenty of guacamole, kid friendly salsa, sour cream, greek yogurt, cotija cheese or other favorite toppings. These savory cakes pack not only a power punch of protein, but plenty of flavor and fun in every bite!
One of Kenya’s (many) favorite foods are black beans. He loves them with brown rice or quesadillas, or even just on their own. I wanted to come up with another fun way for him to enjoy them.
Beans are an incredible source of fiber and iron and because of their soft texture they’re perfect for forming into these little black bean cakes. Sometimes I find it hard to come up with delicious vegetarian recipes which are truly filling, but these totally fit the bill.
I love serving these to Kenya with a little guacamol-wee and sour cream for him to dip in.
Trust me, the only major problem I had making these was keeping my husband away from them. Luckily, most of the ingredients are things I keep on hand, so I quickly cooked up an extra batch so we would all have plenty to munch on at dinner and throughout the next day.
Photos by Matt Armendariz
Black Bean Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 ear of corn, cut off the cob (or 1 cup frozen kernels, defrosted)
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup cilantro, packed
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1-2 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients, except the oil, in a food processor and puree.
- Heat a large saute pan over low to medium heat with 1-2 tbsp oil.
- Place 1 Tbsp of the bean mixture in the pan. Using the back of a spoon, spread the mixture into an even circle (the size and shape of a pancake).
- Cook for 3 minutes.
- Flip on the other side and cook another 3-4 minutes or until cooked through.
- Cook remaining patties, adding about 1 tbsp oil for each batch, and move to a plate.
- Cool and serve.
- *Allow to cool, transfer to a ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 4 months. When ready, defrost in fridge for 24 hours or heat in oven for 10 minutes at 300.
I just made a variation of these without the cheese for my dairy-free toddler and they were a hit! They stuck together just fine also. I used pre-made refried black beans (a happy/organic one) and so didn’t need to use the blender – the corn looked pretty not blended up.
It is quinoa tossed with cucumbers and tomatoes 🙂
Which quinoa salad is in the picture?
This would work just fine without the corn. You can simply omit it!
I am not allowed to eat corn – would this recipe work without the corn? Or is there something I could substitute in?? They sound soooo delicious!!!
Try it and let me know how you like it!
hmmm….an interesting recipe – i’ve got to try this one!
I hope your family loves them as much as mine does!
Nice and simple. Thank you.
Is there a way to make these without using a food processor or blender?
I think I need to try these again. Cooked mine forever and then never cooked through until the outside was burnt.
Is there a way to bake these? Like in a muffin pan?
I’ve made these twice. The first time they fell apart and weren’t easy to work with, but LO loved them. So I just made a second batch and accidentally forgot to add the egg. It managed to bind together nicely, but still had a tough time working with the batter with the cheese. I found working with a hot pan and a lot of oil helped firm up the edges and cook them faster.
Catharine was right… Mine were crumbly at first but I hadn’t let the oil heat up. Once I did they worked like a charm.
I had the same problem with them being crumbly/falling apart. Cooking them longer helped, but still not great. They are tasty though, and super easy. Can’t wait to see if the kid likes them.
The cheese is there for flavor, so you should be fine to just omit the cheese! If you want the cheesy flavor, you can try adding about 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast!