Black Bean Sliders on Corn Cakes

I was feeling creative tonight and played around with some new recipes.

I used Emily at the Daily Garnish’s vegan bean burger recipe as the base for black bean sliders.  I halved the recipe because I wanted to be able to bake the burgers in our small convection toaster oven.  I  modified it to fit ingredients we had on hand; I substituted almonds for the pepitas, and used 1 TBSP Trader Joe’s taco seasoning  instead of the spices Emily suggests.

 

I divided the mixture into 6 sliders for fun.  Here’s what they looked like as they went into the oven:

 

Because our convection toaster oven cooks food faster than a regular oven, they ended up only taking about 25 minutes to bake at 300 degrees F.

While they were baking, I found half a package of Bob’s Red Mill Cornbread Mix.  I didn’t have room in the toaster oven for anything else and didn’t really feel like turning on the real oven, so I turned to the Bob’s Red Mill site for guidance and found a recipe for cornbread pancakes.   I halved the recipe (and left out the optional “imitation butter flavoring” [??] and maple syrup) and made tiny pancakes to be the base for my sliders:

 

After I flipped each one, I topped it with grated apple smoked cheddar:

The cheese flavor got a little lost amid all of the other flavors, which is a shame because this cheese is ridiculously good.

(I heart Wisconsin cheese.)

 

I assembled the open-faced mini-sandwiches and topped them with Trader Joe’s salsa.  I served spring greens on the side because we need to use them up – and because they added a nice pop of color, despite falling off the plate.  (Oops!)

 

They were really good, but would have been even better with a little bit of guacamole on top.  The bean burgers will definitely be joining our repertoire of quick, healthy meals!