Month 1- The first Sunday of each month, I will post recipes from some various diabetic cookbooks. Since Sunday dinner is an important tradition in Black American culture, I figure this would be the perfect edition to my blog.

I had the pleasure of meeting The Kitchen Diva last year when I interviewed for my youtube channel (see video here) so much I couldn’t resist trying something from her cookbook first.

I decided to make Black-Eyed Pea Cakes. I had never heard of them before, but the description made them seem tantalizing. Her book states that this dish “harkens back to Africa. Black-eyed peas are a West African crop made popular in America by George Washington Carver.”

First, I needed 2 cups of thawed frozen black-eyed peas

I was suppose to mash them by hand, but I couldn’t do it. I guess I need more upper body arm strength because I got no where with the plastic potato masher I had. So, I decided to move one to the next steps.

CHOPPED 2 green onions and 2 garlic cloves

1 red pepper

When you can’t smash black-eyed peas with your hand…you use the food chopper. :-D

That works for me! Next, I mixed in the breadcrumbs, flour, egg, salt, pepper, and cumin seeds (the recipe listed ground cumin, but I love the full flavor that you get from the seeds).

Ingredients “mashed” together

Flour and breadcrumbs

I used whole wheat flour because of a personal preference.

ALL ingredients combined (including one egg)

Patties

The recipe recommended that you make six balls. The first ones I made fell apart. It was not easy getting the balls to stick together. I completely understand why these should sit in the fridge for a least 30 minutes or overnight (like the book states). I let mine sit in the fridge for 1 hour.

Frying patties

All done.

At first, I wasn’t sure what color they be when they are done, so some are darker than others.

Finished

Wild Brown rice, sauteed vegetables (cabbage, green beans, squash, and carrots), Black-eyed pea cake, and curried vegetables (scallions and red and green bell peppers)

Black-eyed Pea Cakes: 4 out 5.

They were a lot better than I thought they would be, but I make some adjustments to the amount of flour I add next time so that I can make the patties easier. I am also going to make smaller balls as these were extremely filling and will work better as a main dish than a side dish.

They are PERFECT for my yearly meatless-month!!  I’m always looking for more vegetarian dishes to add to my list and these will be moved to the top. The ingredients were easy to find (which is important to me).