Graduate School and Black Bean Burgers

This is the first year EVER that May didn't mean the end of the school year for me, and I have to admit, it's a bit strange. Everyone else is studying for exams or finishing up with their teaching this year, and I am grading spelling tests and looking forward to 7 more months of teaching. The school year in Colombia begins in January and ends in December. That meant that this past year, I had to wait through an entire fall before I could begin my "real" job. I made good use of the time, working at my former job doing study abroad work and teaching English at a language institute, but it felt like prison anyway. I had to stay in my old college town and work at two part time jobs just to pay for my tiny little apartment. Not an ideal situation.

I think it was worth it, because I certainly enjoy my job here and I love my apartment and lifestyle in Colombia. The problem is that I'm looking at one more "semester" like I had last fall: next spring, I'll be waiting to *hopefully* start graduate school in the fall. If there's any reason to not teach in Colombia, the fact that the academic year is opposite to the American academic year is a strong one. It basically means that 1 year of my life is "wasted" while I wait.

Of course, I'm not REALLY going to waste an entire Jan-Sept period of time. I'm hoping to go to a Spanish immersion school and then find a job in whatever city I end up in for grad school.

Speaking of graduate school, can I just say I hate the process of even applying? When I went to Missouri State for my graduate certificate, I treated it as seriously as applying to Target for a summer job. I knew I would get in, I didn't have to take the GRE, and my only real concern was which assistant position I would get out of the three I applied for. (For the record, I took the one that paid the best and had the coolest job description.) Applying to graduate school for "real" is very intimidating. I want a very specific program (International Education and Development) and only about 5 schools in the entire USA offer programs that really fit my career goals. It's extremely intimidating, and I'm scared to death I won't get in to my top choices. Also, I hate standardized tests with so much fervor that whenever a school requires the GRE I automatically lower them on my list of top choices. (Take that, American University!)

Anyway, I'm probably going to be blogging a bit about graduate schools from this point on as I begin my search and application process. Most of my applications are due in January or earlier, so I'll be writing personal statements, begging for recommendation letters, and taking the GRE here. In Colombia. Oh joy.

On to happier things...

A Fabulous, Homemade, Entirely Vegan Black Bean Burger!


If there's anything I miss about the States, it's pre-packaged vegan faux meat. I know that's disgusting, but it's a lot of work to come up with protein every night from scratch. I miss my vegan sausage and chorizo, and I definitely miss a good vegan burger.

I created these on Wednesday and we ate them again on Thursday. Quick, simple, and very easy, they definitely satisfied my burger craving... and with no preservatives! here's the recipe:

Black Bean Burgers
3 cups pre-cooked black beans in their cooking liquid
1 small yellow onion
1 red pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil (or canola oil)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup cornmeal (not dulce)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (or 1 tablespoon paste and 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce*)
salt and pepper to taste
*Good and cheap BBQ sauce in Colombia: San Jorge brand, near the salsa de tomate

Directions:
1. Chop onion finely and sauté in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Don't let them burn, just become translucent.
2. While the onion is cooking, dice a red pepper into small pieces and add to the onion. Sauté until tender.
3. While pepper and onion cook, mash black beans with a fork, potato masher, or in a blender or food processor. They don't need to be perfectly smooth, just broken and mashed a bit. I recommend blending them with about 1/2 cup of their liquid (or water/vegetable broth if you don't have cooking liquid).
4. Add half the onion and pepper mixture to the food processor and blend with the beans. (This makes them less likely to fall apart, but keeping half of the mixture intact makes them prettier.)
5. Dump the blended mixture into a bowl. Add the rest of the pepper/onion mixture and the tomato paste. Stir until everything is generally the same consistency and the sauce is well mixed.
6. Add the spices. You can be creative here--I love a good cumin-scented black bean burger and I eat it with avocado and salsa, but if you have liquid smoke or want to up the BBQ flavor and ditch the cumin, or whatever, really, feel free.
7. Add the breadcrumbs and cornmeal. Get your hands nice and dirty and mix it all together as if you are kneading bread.
8. Add the 2nd tablespoon of olive oil and mix again. If it seems dry, add more BBQ sauce, tomato paste, cooking liquid, or olive oil. (It doesn't really matter, just base it on what you want the burger to taste like. A good, fairly smooth salsa would be fantastic.) If you aren't vegan, I would highly recommend adding a beaten egg, but only because that's what most recipe books tell you to do.
9. When everything feels basically like raw hamburger meat (EWWW), start forming patties. I made mine about 1/3 an inch thick and about 4-5 inches across.
10. Cook over medium heat in a frying pan, flipping occasionally. Be careful when you flip them--if they are dry they might break apart.
11. Serve. We ate them on arepas (so Colombian of us!) with salsa or BBQ sauce or mustard or ketchup or... you get the idea.

Black bean burger on an arepa.



Warren is a fan.