Black Bean and Sweet Potato Cakes

Sweet potatoes were on sale at the grocery store the other weekend, and I sought to find a recipe that was new (i.e. not just baked/mashed sweet potatoes) that I could serve as a main dish. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, and I decided to try it out. Stupidly, I didn't really have all the ingredients I needed, so I had to tweak the recipe quite a bit. Sigh.

My verdict about the recipe is that the lime sour cream topping really makes these cakes extraordinary. By themselves, they were a little dry. Perhaps a little more tweaking and experimenting is in order...

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Cakes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Lime Sour Cream:

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tsp lime juice (I used from concentrate, fresh is probably better)

1 tsp diced green chili peppers from can (or 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, fancy pants)

Bean and Potato Cakes:

1 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small can diced chili peppers

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup of raw sweet potato, grated

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup bread crumbs (all I had was Italian bread crumbs, and it worked out fine)

Procedure:

1. Prepare lime sour cream first. Mix the sour cream, lime juice and peppers well, and store covered in the fridge to meld the flavors together.

**Turn on the broiler**

2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chili peppers and cumin until fragrant and golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic, as it has a bitter flavor when it is burnt.

3. In a large bowl mix the black beans with the chili-garlic mixture. With a potato masher or a fork, mash the black beans with the peppers. Mix in the sweet potatoes, egg and bread crumbs until patties can be formed.

4. Take a large spoonful of the mixture and roll into a 1.5 inch ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from one another. With the bottom of a glass or the palm of your hand, flatten the balls into patties.

5. Broil about 8 minutes on one side, then carefully flip over using a wide spatula, and broil another 3-5 minutes on the other side, until crispy.

6. Serve with a dollop of the lime sour cream.