Week 7 - Mardi Gras

The Week 7 challenge theme was Mardi Gras, and although A made a king cake, I wanted to do something else for dinner. I found a recipe on My Cooking Spot for red beans and rice burgers described as "perfect for a Mardi Gras meal," so it sounded like it was worth a try!

The ingredients, slightly modified from the original recipe, were:

- 1/2 green bell pepper

- 1/2 large yellow onion

- 1/2 cup basmati rice

- 1 cup chicken broth with some extra hot water

- 2 cans of kidney beans

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 flax egg

- salt & freshly ground black pepper

- garlic powder

- smoked paprika

- dash of cayenne pepper

- a few tbsp olive oil, divided

On the side, we ate some Field Roast apple and sage sausages, and some sautéed vegetables (using the other half of the green bell pepper, the other half of the onion, and a red bell pepper).

I generally followed the steps from the recipe, and our one big change was that the sausage would be on the side instead of in the burgers. (I think it was our first time making this sausage, so we weren't sure how the texture would work with everything else.) I sautéed the green bell pepper and onion until soft, then added rice, cooked it for about 30 seconds, and then added broth. You were supposed to bring it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer, but for some reason, the water disappeared almost instantly, so I had to add enough water to cover it and then let it simmer until done. [Note: I have no recollection of this happening now, since I made it in February, but when I wrote up my notes in a draft post 10 months ago, this is what I said, so I guess it happened! Really need to finish posts in a more timely manner...]

While that was cooking, I mashed the kidney beans in a mixing bowl. When the rice was done, it was time to add garlic, the flax egg, all the seasonings, and the rice mixture to the beans, and then shape it into patties. I cooked the patties on each side in olive oil until crisp. As you can see from the picture, they weren't really burger patties that you would recognize as burger patties, and they definitely weren't round. They did mostly stick together, but they were kind of more like sautéed rice scoops.

Overall, the dinner was fine. The "burgers" could have used some more seasoning, but they did taste good. I don't think it screamed Mardi Gras as a theme, but A's king cake more than made up for it.