The plan this morning was to go to yoga class and then on a long run. I am absolutely terrible at yoga as I have no flexibility or balancing skills, but I enjoy it every once in a while for a challenge, and I got a mat for Christmas! I was really looking forward to running afterward, however, 40 degrees + rain = no run :( So after a yoga classes full of chaturangas (ouch) and warrior poses (my fav), I had a bowl of Kashi Go Lean with cinnamon sprinkled on top and TJ's gingerbread coffee with skim milk (yum!). And then I found this:
MASSIVE bowl of left-over black-eyed peas!!!!!
I decide to take on a personal cooking challenge to use all the black-eyed peas! Here are my cooking experiments:
1. Black-Eyed Pea Chocolate Cake
Stumbled across this blog post from Bittersweet and got inspired! (Btw, if you haven't checked out this girl's blog before, it is awesome. She does lots of vegan cooking and has amazing food photography. I just found it today and will definitely be reading it again!)
We had my favorite kind of chocolate chips: Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chips!! My sister and I were snacking on them last night so we just barely had 1 1/2 cups :) Thank goodness! Microwaved the chips in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after each increment.
Melted Ghirardelli chocolate chips. Mmmmm....
The original recipe calls for 4 eggs (Bittersweet's recipe was adapted to use tofu instead), but I opened our egg carton and discovered we only had 3 eggs (and we don't have tofu). Crap. Google searched "egg substitute baking" and looked through pantry and refrigerator.... I found I had several options: 1/4 cup of applesauce, banana, pumpkin, or yogurt. I chose to mash up about 1/4 cup of banana.
Bittersweet added coffee powder to hers, which I'm sure was delicious, but I decided to use cinnamon! Chocolate and cinnamon is always a fabulous combination. (Actually I think cinnamon added to pretty much anything is tasty...)
So here are the ingredients I ended up using:
- 1 1/2 cup Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups black-eyed peas
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup mashed banana
- about 2 tsp cinnamon (didn't measure)
So easy. Just melt the chips and blend it all in a food processor! Baked for 40 minutes at 350 in a 9 inch cake pan. It had a really nice flavor, and the texture was perfect! So moist and wonderful! I'm sure it would be super easy to make completely vegan by using carob chips in place of chocolate and tofu, fruit based egg substitute, or vegan "yogurt" in place of the eggs. Great reviews from the whole family...we are all chocolate lovers :)
Slice of cake with whipped cream and more cinnamon!
2. Garlicky Black-Eyed Pea Hummus
Hummus is one of my favorite foods! It is usually made with chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), but black-eyed peas seemed like an acceptable substitute. And we happened to have tahini paste (essential hummus ingredient!), so I put this in a food processor:
- 2 cups black-eyed peas
- 1/4 cup tahini paste
- 2 tablespoons EVOO
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper
My top two hummus dippers = baby carrots and toasted whole wheat pita bread. But give me any raw veggie, cracker, chip... or just a spoon, and I will eat lots of hummus!
3. Black-Eyed Pea Veggie Burgers
Loved these!!! After looking a several bean burger recipes, I came up with this recipe (mainly inspired by this recipe):
- 1 1/2 cups black-eyed peas
- 1/2 cup chopped onions
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp. cumin
- 1/4 tsp. chili powder
- 1/4 tsp McCormick's Cajun Seasoning
- fresh cilantro
- juice from 1/2 a lime
Then I added the seasonings and put all ingredients in a food processor.
Then I shaped into burgers and cooked them on the stove with a little olive oil until they browned a bit on each side.
Cooked these for dinner and served with oven-roasted red potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and peppers. (We also put some Fresh Market Plum Tomato Mild Salsa on the burgers.) This is my favorite way to cook veggies: just coat in a little olive oil and salt and put in the oven! I like to put aluminum foil over the pan for easy clean-up.
A healthy and delicious dinner.
Ok, so after all that cooking I actually barely made a dent in the gigantic bowl of black-eyed peas, but I still made some wonderful foods today! This challenge is officially to be continued. Any suggestions on how to use the rest? Since the cake turned out so well, I'm thinking of trying to make some muffins with them tomorrow morning. I also have some salad ideas in mind... Stay tuned!
3 comments:
Way to think on your feet! I'm so glad the cake recipe/inspiration. :)
*so glad you enjoyed
what an amazing cake recipe!!!!!!!!!
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