make burgers.  I’ve had a package of dried lima beans sitting in my cabinet for awhile now.  They were purchased on a whim several months back after a conversation with an aunt of mine.  Said aunt mentioned how much she liked baby lima beans.  I commented how the greenness of lima beans sort of grossed me out.  Then, I learned that not all lima beans are green.  I’ve been meaning to do something with these lima beans for awhile, and this weekend I decided to finally boil them up simple with a little salt and pepper and see how that worked.  I even had a recipe I was using.

The problem is that I way, way overcooked the lima beans, turning them into mush.  I tried them.  They were tasty, but too mushy.  I figured I’d just have to ditch the whole batch and start over later in the week.  Then, an idea came to me.  If you can make black bean burgers, can you make lima bean burgers?  I figured why not.  I looked up a few bean burger recipes and after some thought, these are what resulted.  In all honesty, they are quite tasty though a tidge dry.

Today’s bento includes scrambled egg, lima bean burger, sauteed veggies, and grapes.  In all honesty, I’m really looking forward to this meal.

I didn’t really measure anything out for this recipe, but I think I can give you a general idea of how it worked.  While I had boiled dried lima beans, I think you could use canned instead.  Here would be the basics of the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 can of lima beans (or about 15-16 0z of dried lima beans that have been cooked)
Bread crumbs
Shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
1 egg
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and parsley
Olive oil for cooking patties.

• Rinse and drain the beans.
• In a large bowl, mash the beans with a fork until they look sort of like mashed potatoes.
• To the mashed beans add, 1/2 a cup of bread crumbs, 1/2 cup shredded cheese.  Mix together well.
• Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and parsley.  Mix well.  Taste.  Add in a bit more of whichever seasoning you feel you need.
• Add in 1 beaten raw egg and mix together well.  You need this to bind up the mixture.
• Form into patties.  Use a tablespoon to measure out 2 scoops.  This makes a great bento sized burger.
• Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.
• Once olive oil is heated and just beginning to shimmer, add patties to skillet.  Don’t overcrowd the skillet.  You might have to do a few batches.
• Once the patties are browned on one side, flip over and brown on the other side.
• Once done, remove to a paper-towel lined plate for patties to drain a bit.

These turned out much better than I expected.  Happy Monday everyone!  Be the Bento!