I like to serve these as a pre-dinner canape. They can be a bit messy but delicious!
This recipe for Goan style spicy bean cakes seems to have gotten lost on my site. It was one of the first I published back in 2010.
So today I decided to make these spicy cakes again for Caroline and me for lunch. These are actually similar to many kidney bean burger recipes though I do add Indian spices and the resulting dish is something I hope to be making much more often.
After writing so many recipes, it’s funny how some just seem to fade from memory until I start exploring my site from time to time.
I normally suggest roasting your whole spices separately but with the spices in this dish you really can just roast them together. It’s a lot faster.
The spicy green chillies and roasted cardamom and cumin seeds, together with the pureed kidney beans and chilli make this a dish that will be a bit spicy for some. Just adjust it to your own tastes.
It is important not to rush cooking. The kidney bean paste can be quite wet and difficult to work with. Simply plop a spoonful or so on a greased non stick pan and cook until the patty moves easily around in the pan.
When the underside is cooked, flip it over and toast the other side for a few minutes. When the cakes are ready, you should be able to lift them easily out of the pan.
Roast all the spices together in a dry non-stick pan until fragrant.
Grind the spices into a powder and then add the chilli powder and gram flour.
Blend all of the ingredients together into a thick bean paste.
Allow the cakes to fry until the underside becomes crispy. Then flip.
Dig in!
- 2 x 400ml tins of Kidney beans drained of all liquid
- 1 tablespoon white cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon black cardamom seeds
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon red hot chilli powder
- 2 green chilli peppers finely chopped
- 1 slice of white bread
- 3 clove garlic - smashed and finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger - finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon gram flour
- 1 teaspoon mango powder or citric acid powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- In a large non-stick frying pan, roast the cumin seeds, black pepper and cardamom seeds evenly until they become fragrant.
- Transfer the spices to a spice grinder and grind into a fine powder.
- Pour the drained kidney beans into a food processor together with the spice powder and the rest of the ingredients except the oil. Process to a paste.
- Heat the oil in the frying pan over medium heat.
- Carefully form small patties with a spoon and plop them into the pan. While the bean cakes fry, press down on them slightly to flatten them.
- Fry for about 3 minutes per side until the exterior is nice and crispy. When cooked through, you should be able to slide them around easily in the pan with your finger.
- Transfer the finished bean cakes to a paper towel and keep warm.
- Serve with your favourite chutney or raita.
I would like to thank my sponsors Le Creuset for the brilliant non-stick pan and Nisbets for supplying the Waring spice grinder. Grinding spices has become a lot easier!