Soooooo YUMMM It's Almost a Sin to Admit it's Healthy! -- Veggie Bean Patty Endive Wraps with Mango Chutney & Tomato

Something mundane like sharing a recipe seems would make for a good start to this blog.  Besides which, I can't wait to share this!!!  Although this dish is incredibly healthy in every way, once we tried it it is just so deliciously good that it doesn't seem right to call it healthy!  Restaurant worthy, deceptively healthy, if you try this you have to forget how good for you it is and just look forward to some good food :-)

Now that you know this should not be thought of as health food, then I can tell you how good for you it is!  I originally came up with this dish for a friend who has been diagnosed with kidney failure.  Recommended diets for kidney disease limits sodium intake as well as low potassium and low protein so this dish is spiced using no salt and can actually be made entirely vegan, in addition to being gluten-free.

The hardest part of this dish is making the veggie bean patties (recipe below) but using the regular sized cans of beans makes a lot.  This dish makes a great appetizer for a dinner party but whatever extras you don't use can just go in the freezer.  Freeze them in individual patty servings and you can just pop out whatever you need when you want, and of course the patties can be used in other dishes.

The patties take about 10 minutes to cook, (longer if frozen).  I used my friend's George Foreman Grill which worked great.  Pan frying or baking should also work, if you use an outdoor grill you'll probably want to put foil down over the grill.  I made small-ish sized patties, about a teaspoon scoop, to fit the purpose.

Once you have the patties, this dish is as simple as taking an individual endive leaf, lining it with a layer of rice along the leaf spine.  Put your mini bean patties on the rice and top with mango chutney and diced fresh tomato.  Endives are reportedly has great antioxidants against breast cancer and other cancers, and tomatoes are also supposed to be good in antioxidants (though better when cooked).  We found a good organic chutney with no added sugars or preservatives, and used brown rice, a gluten-free whole grain.

Hope you'll enjoy!

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This is a very loose recipe with endless variations you could try with different ingredients.

Bean Veggie Burgers
1 16 oz. can black beans, drain & rinse
1 16 oz. can chick peas, drain & rinse
1 green pepper, fine chop
1 onion, fine chop
6 cloves minced garlic
1 8 oz. can waterchestnuts, fine chop (for texture, or I was going to try jicama)
1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp diced sundried tomato
2 or 3 tbsp minced parsley
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp cumin
2 tsp sriracha thai chili sauce or other hot sauce
few dashes of Worcestershire sauce (*contains anchovies, leave out for vegan.  Lee & Perrins website states they are cholesterol free, fat free, preservative free, gluten free and has 80% less sodium than soy sauce)
1 cup bread crumbs (*gluten free bread crumbs)
2 tsp. corn starch, dissolve in 1/4 cup water (for binding, or you could use an egg)

Mash the beans & chick peas first, then just mix in all the other ingredients & separate into patties.

Introductions

Helllloooooo World!

This has been a long time coming, people have been telling me for years to start a blog.  "People need to know someone like you exists!" someone once told me.

As Viewed From Along the Edges is not to suggest I am especially edgy, hah.  In my rebellious teenage years I remember striving for a fine line I imagined along defiance, questioning, breaking the rules... just enough but not enough to get in serious trouble.  It occurred to me that rebelling too hard, too far makes you an "enemy of the state", to be locked away, criminal or insane.  Too far outside the norm and the message is not understood.  Few people listen to PETA when they throw red paint on fur coats; whereas in contrast, as much criticism as you may have for Gore's eco- push, he brought about more actual political buoyancy to the movement than had previously been possible by the original leftist groups.

Later in life I'll always remember a college friend commenting on my getting along with everyone, but that I'll never really fit in anywhere.  That is the life not as an outsider, but from along the edges.  Always almost fitting in but not quite, not being able to fit into any one completely precisely because I can fit in everywhere.

Makes for a unique perspective, I think.

I was going to use the title Talk, or Just Talk before deciding instead on Talk Story.  A pidgin term from Hawaii, talk story is the exchange of stories and ideas among friends which I think better underscores the importance I feel in community.  One person alone, an unexpressed idea, are meaningless alone in a vacuum.  It is only through our connections to each other that we, or information, gain any meaning.  Through our connections we become more than the sum of the parts.

So by all means, comments are encouraged! :-D