Black bean Veggie Burgers with Pineapple Relish and Lemon Olive Oil & Poppyseed Cake

Hawaiian Sloppy Joes (Chloe Coscarelli recipe) with homemade Tahini & Guacamole on whole grain bun

I’ve been really busy this weekend writing my last few essays before the end of the semester. So I haven’t had much time to cook anything special. I’ve don’t even remember what I’ve eaten the last few days. I’ve been a zombie on the computer. So tonight I wanted to make something special.

I decided to make a couple of recipes from Chloe Coscarelli’s book, Chloe’s Kitchen.Well  these recipes aren’t actually from her book, but on her website promoting her book.

I’ve got her book as well and its really great. I’ve cooked a few of her recipes and they are really recipes that you wouldn’t know its vegan. The Hawaiian Sloppy Joes are also on her website. The Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce are in the book. The filling is Garden Ricotta and its amazing. I never thought I would taste ricotta again. You can use it to substitute ricotta for other recipes. I have only used it for savoury, not sure how it would for sweet with the white miso paste in it.

Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce

Anyway tonight I was planing on making Chloe’s Mexicali Sliders. I was still able to make the Black bean Patties, but as for the Spicy Mango Sauce and the Guacamole, that was not able happen. There was a little communication problem with my boyfriend. He went food shopping before he came home and I told him I needed mangos and avocado, but apparently he heard everything I didn’t  need. So by the time I made the patties and I was about to prepare the rest I discovered I was missing a few things.

But it was ok, luckily I had a can of pineapple and used that instead of the mango. I was a bit worried putting pineapple with sun dried tomatoes, but it was really delicious. As for the Black bean patties, they were amazing. I think the best veggie patty I’ve ever had. Way better then anything I’ve paid for out, well except for the one at Green Edge. If you don’t like coriander, don’t worry you wont be able to taste it. Marco hates coriander and he didn’t know it was even in there. It was full of flavour and very easy to prepare. I had to use polenta and rice crumbs since I didn’t have cornmeal or breadcrumbs, which I think made it more moist, which means its gluten free I guess. These ingredients really help to bind the patties, so they don’t need egg. They tasted pretty good before they were cooked as well, so I think you could have them raw.

I also made Marco’s favourite sweet potato fries on the side. Since we found out he has an intolerance to potatoes  we have been trying  cutting back on them as well. They are just as delicious and easy to prepare.

For dessert I made another recipe from Chef Chloe, Lemon Olive Oil Cake. I’ve made it before, but this time I thought I would put poppyseed through it. It is actually a sugar-free recipe, well except for the icing sugar. You could just leave that out, since it only gets dusted at the end. If you are worried about the olive oil taste, don’t worry, you won’t taste that either. For me the maple syrup made it  sweet enough. Marco wanted to have his with nutella, but we are trying to cut back our sugar and salt. So hopefully if he skips a few more nights without chocolate he will start to appreciate natural sweetness again.