Spicy Black Bean Cakes with Lime Sour Cream Sauce

It's Monday...dart night!!! Which means another quiet evening to myself, to make whatever I want for dinner. I was at Trader Joe's this weekend and picked up a bag of fresh sweet potato that was peeled and cut-up into spears. Much to my dismay, I found out my husband is not a sweet potato fan. Since white potatoes are pretty much persona non grata on the South Beach diet. So we settled for some Alexia Frozen sweet potato fries to go along with our burgers for the Super Bowl..All the while thinking that now the sweet potatoes were ALL MINE, and I had "kitchen time" coming up that I could experiment with the spears..

I found this today on allrecipes.com and boy was it tasty! The lime cream sauce really makes the dish. The potatoes were easy to chop up with my handy-dandy pampered chef chopper. I halved the recipe since it was just for me, and ended up with 4 pretty big cakes. I only had one jalapeno on hand, and thank God, because it was a hottie! I used 1/3 in the lime sauce, and the rest in the cakes. I took the advice of some of the reviewers and added more spice (coriander, more cumin, chili powder and cilantro) and just pan-fried them instead of broiling.

I will definitely make these again. Not to mention that I can't wait for lunch tomorrow for the leftover cakes! I had this with a small arugula salad with a chopped tomato and goat cheese dressed with lime juice, balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil and extra lime juice for the cakes.

Spicy Black Bean Cakes
Source: allrecipes.com


Lime Sour Cream:
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 small fresh jalapeno pepper, minced
salt to taste

Bean Cakes:
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 green onions, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, pressed
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 (14.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups grated raw sweet potato
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried bread crumbs

To prepare lime sour cream, mix the sour cream, lime juice, 1 small minced jalapeno, and salt together in a small bowl. Cover, and refrigerate.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook green onions until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in garlic, 2 diced jalapenos, and cumin; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Transfer contents of skillet to a large bowl. Stir in black beans, and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in sweet potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs. Divide into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.

In the oven, set cooking rack about 4 inches from heat source. Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil.

Place bean patties on baking sheet, and broil 8 to 10 minutes. Turn cakes over, and broil until crispy, about 3 minutes more. Serve with lime sour cream.