Lucky Black-Eyed Pea Sliders

What to do with those leftover black-eyed peas from New Years? Make these delicious veggie burger sliders, of course.

Since my last post a little over a week ago, I celebrated Christmas six times across four days, I turned 29, I had a girlfriend and her two little ones spend the night, and I saw in a New Year. Tomorrow, we leave for our first overnight trip without Jackson (eeek!) for a little romantic getaway, and then my husband will turn the Big 3-0 before he returns to work on Monday.

Between Christmas, the New Year, and both of our birthdays in a two week span, the last thing I wanted to do for New Year’s Eve was to get gussied up and go out on the town with a bunch of crazy drivers on the streets. Instead, we opted to stay home and relax. We went for a walk, I played with a DSLR camera I’m borrowing, and I cooked and photographed leisurely in the kitchen without a little one at my feet too much while he played with his daddy.

Well, there were a few interruptions.

It was wonderful.

I stayed in my pjs most of the day, cooked up a big batch of Black-Eyed Peas and black rice and made veggie burgers and maple glazed sweet potato crisps for dinner. Today, I tried a recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me for my birthday, Spicy Vegetable Gumbo and added black-eyed peas and collard greens for good luck, as the tradition goes. Jared confirmed that he was pretty sure it was working, because he was feeling pretty lucky having had two home cooked meals in a row.

I was feeling pretty lucky myself, finding six rocks in my dried beans. Surely that means something, right? At minimum, we lucked out of breaking six teeth. Now THAT’S luck.

Lucky rocks in the dried beans.

After dinner, I put littlebit to bed and made a proposal Jared couldn’t turn down.

“We have the house all to ourselves and just a few hours left in the year. How ’bout you and me pour ourselves a drink, slip into something comfortable, and organize the pantry?”

Because he’d been nagging me about it for days and there were cocktails involved, he obliged. I’m a lucky girl. We had so much fun, we tackled the fridge today. We’re going out of our 20s with a bang, I tell ya!

Believe it or not, we did actually stay up until midnight to toast in the new year.

Happy New Year!

If you are wondering what the heck to do with that big pot of leftover black-eyed peas, try this recipe for Lucky Black-Eyed Pea Veggie Burgers. They were so good, I chased that glass of champagne with a reheated patty for a midnight snack.

Burgers and chips, .

Lucky Black-Eyed Pea Sliders

Makes 8 sliders (4 servings)

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. cooked black-eyed peas*, or one can drained and rinsed (divided in half)
1 1/2 c. cooked rice (black rice, wild rice or brown rice) (divided in half)
1 T. mayonaise (I used veganaise)
1 c. spinach
1 green onion sprig, chopped
1 c. bread crumbs
Seasoning if needed (Salt, cajun seasoning, tabasco — my beans were plenty flavorful so I didn’t need any)
Small buns or rolls
Desired toppings: mayo, tabasco, lettuce, kale

Directions

Put half of the beans and rice and the mayo in a food processor. Process until it becomes a thick paste. Add a little water (cooking water from beans if you have it) if it needs help to get things moving. Stop and add the spinach, green onion, and the rest of the beans and rice. Pulse once or twice. You want it chunky. Transfer to a bowl and mix in bread crumbs. Taste for seasoning.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to form patties.

(Optional Step: Pan fry patties in oil on medium heat until golden brown on both sides, adding more oil as needed, then bake. It gives it a nice color and crunch, but does add time, calories, and a mess for what turned out to be a minimal difference in the end product.)

Transfer patties to a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Serve on small buns or rolls with desired toppings. I topped it with kale and a jalapeno mayo (6 T. of mayo, a seeded jalapeno, a splash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar blended until smooth). A tabasco flavored mayo would be good too.

*Easy Black-Eyed Peas: I just did the quick soak method, following the bag instructions. Rinsed and covered them with water (about an inch above the beans). Tossed in 3 cloves of chopped garlic, half an onion (not chopped), a couple sprigs of green onions and leeks left whole, and heavily seasoned with salt and Cajun seasoning. Brought to boil, lowered heat to simmer, tilted lid, simmered until tender. Only took about 30 minutes. They were pretty tender from the quick soak. Finished with a sprinkle of smoked salt.

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Let’s take a closer look.

Black Rice has a rich nutty flavor and a little more chew than brown rice. You could sub wild rice or brown rice.

Isn’t it pretty?

The food processor is super quick, but you could also chop the spinach and green onions and use a fork or your hands to squish everything up if you don’t have a food processor.

You want a nice thick mixture just sticky enough to hold everything together. Add more bread crumbs if needed.

You can pan fry them before baking to give them a little extra crunch on the outside. But for a lighter burger, skip this step.

For a lower fat, less mess, quicker option skip frying and just form the patties on the baking sheet like this one.

I do like the nice deep color that frying gives them, but I didn’t notice a big difference in the final product’s taste.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until they stay together when you pick them up.