This Week’s “Plant to Plate”: the Anasazi bean

“Plant to Plate: Native Plant Foods from the Americas” is a series that introduces you to different plants from the Americas through a brief history, tips for cooking, eating and growing, along with a recipe.

This Week’s Feature: Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Recipe: Anasazi bean veggie burgers

A jar of dried Anasazi beans; Photo by Meghan Fox

Although they have yet to sprout, our horticulturists have planted a number of native bean varieties in the Sacred Earth garden, soon to make their debut later this month. Read below for a history of the protein-packed bean, followed by a scrumptious recipe for Anasazi bean veggie burgers. As a non-vegetarian lover of veggie burgers, I knew I had to try this recipe myself. I had never made my own veggie burgers before this and I’m happy to report, they were very straightforward and ended in success.

A short history

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a New World species that includes many varieties in the U.S. today including black beans, pinto beans, anasazi beans, kidney beans. String beans, the unripe pods of P. vulgaris, are also common in many modern American cuisines. Botanists believe that the bean was domesticated several times in Central America and the Northern Andes as early as 8,000 BC before moving north into modern United States.

The Anasazi bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an heirloom variety of the common bean, was cultivated by the Ancestral Puebloan, or Anasazi, peoples of the North American Southwest; they are probably most well known for their cliff-dwellings in the Four Corners region. Anasazi beans can still be found growing at over 7,000 feet above sea level in the same area today.

Cooking and eating

The Anasazi bean can be identified by its unique white-and-maroon speckled pattern. Known for having a mild, sweet and nutty flavor, they are best utilized in spicy Southwest-inspired foods, like chili. Anasazi beans make for a great supplement to the vegetarian diet, as they are high in protein and fiber.

If you aren’t growing any beans yourself, pick up some dried Anasazi beans in the bulk section of your local grocery store (Whole Foods, Sunflower Market, Vitamin Cottage). One piece of advice I can give for preparing this recipe is to take caution when you are 1) forming the patties, 2) placing them on the pan and 3) flipping them – they start to dry out when heated and might crumble if they are handled too hastily. Other than that, they are delicious! I recommend this recipe for when you want a unique, healthy, and flavorful dinner option (it helps if you are cooking for the veggie-lovers, too).

Recipe: Anasazi Bean Veggie Burgers

Anasazi bean veggie burger and side salad. Photo by Katie Arntzen.

Yield: 8 Patties

Time: 20 minutes (this does not count time to prepare the dried beans)

Ingredients:

1 cup dried Anasazi beans

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 red bell pepper

1 yellow onion

1 clove garlic

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

¾ cup dried breadcrumbs

1 tbsp olive oil

Hamburger buns or bread slices of your choice

Optional: Cheddar cheese

[Anasazi bean preparation: Soak beans in water overnight for about 12 hours. Drain beans from water. Place beans in pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook for approximately 2 hours until beans are tender. Drain the water.]

Directions:

1) Mince onion, garlic, and peppers. If you have a food processor it is easier to pulse a few times rather than chop by hand.

2) Sauté this vegetable mixture in a pan with olive oil for about 5 minutes.

3) Place beans separately into the food processor and pulse a few times so that they are chopped up but not too mushy.

4) Mix vegetables and beans in a bowl with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Stir in egg and dried breadcrumbs gradually until the mixture thickens into a dough-like mass.

5) With your hands, roll a handful of the mixture into 2-3 inch balls and gently flatten into patties. Place patties into a pan and sauté  over medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side until browned.

6) Melt cheddar cheese on top of patties if you desire. When the cheese is melted, place each patty on a toasted hamburger bun or bread slice of your choice. Add condiments if desired.

[Original Recipe from Moon Time Pub, http://www.wedonthaveone.com/anasazi_recipe.htm]

Sources

“Anasazi Beans.” Adobe Milling, accessed June 2, 2011, http://www.anasazibeans.com/beans.html.

“Anasazi Beans.” Organic Planet, accessed June 2, 2011, http://www.organic-planet.com/products/anasazibeans.php.

Kiple, Kenneth F. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Internet resource.

Nabhan, Gary P, and Kelly Kindscher. Renewing the Native Food Traditions of the Bison Nation. United States: S.N, 2006.

“Write-ups and Recipes” Moon Time Pub. accessed June 3, 2011, http://www.wedonthaveone.com/anasazi_recipe.htm.