I had these wonderful black eyed pea cakes at Spotted Dog, a vegetarian friendly restaurant in Carrboro, NC. Their vegetarian black eyed pea patties had jalapenos, red pepper, celery, lime, and cilantro. I think my recipe comes pretty close to Spotted Dog’s! Served with a green salad, this makes a satisfying lunch.
You can used canned black eyed peas as a short cut, but I prefer the texture of freshy cooked dry black eyed peas in this recipe.
You could dip these cakes in butter milk, roll them in bread crumbs and shallow fry them. But this can get messy, and I didn’t want to use too much oil. So to kept things on the simpler and lighter side. I just dusted the patties with a tiny bit of corn starch, and pan cooked them with just a little olive oil.
More black eyed pea cake recipes..
Black eyed pea cakes recipe with liquid smoke on Fat free Vegan
Black eyed pea cakes recipe with cumin, on Soup Spoon
Martha Hall Foose’s Black-eyed pea cakes recipe on Ezra Pound cake
Tips for forming the patties
If the mixture is too wet, the patties will be difficult to form. So make sure your black eyed peas are drained very well drained.
Add more bread to a wet mixture, to make it more firm.
If the mixture is too dry, either mash the black eyed peas more, or sprinkle a little water
Using a wide spatula will make it easier to flip the cakes while cooking them
If you don’t want to pan fry them, you could brush the black eyed pea cakes with oil, and broil them till the tops are browned and crusty. Carefully flip them over, brush more oil and broil the other side.
Black-eyed pea Cakes Recipe with Chipotle Mayonnaise
makes 4 cakes
½ cup dry black eyed peas*
1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon or to taste, finely chopped jalapenos, optional
1 garlic clove, minced
½ a medium green pepper, diced small
½ cup slightly stale bread, torn into small pieces. I used left over challa bread.
Zest of ½ small lime
1 tablespoon lime juice
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
¼ teaspoon or to taste Seasoned salt (I like Lawry’s and McCormick’s)
1 tablespoon Corn starch
Soak the dry black eyed peas overnight in water. Drain. Then boil plenty of fresh water in a medium pot. Salt it generously. Add soaked peas, and boil till cooked, about 20 minutes.
Drain the peas well. If they are watery, the cakes won’t hold together.
*I prefer dried black eyed peas that have been freshly cooked. But if you don’t want to use dry beans, use canned black eyed peas instead. Rinse and drain them well. Then measure out 1 1/4 cups for this recipe. You may need to use more bread, because canned beans can be wetter than cooked dried beans.
Heat a medium sauce pan with 1 teaspoon oil. Add jalapeno, garlic and green pepper and sauté on medium heat till pepper is soft, about 2 minutes. Add the bread, lime zest, lime juice, cilantro, seasoned salt, and mix well. Turn off heat.
Add the cooked drained black eyed peas. Mix well. Using a potato masher, or the back of a wooden spoon, mash the black eyes peas. The mixture doesn’t have to be completely mashed, some whole black eyes peas (about 30%) will give the cakes a nice texture. Taste and adjust seasoning.
When the mashed peas mixture is cool enough to handle, divide it into 4. Roll each section into a ball. Place the 4 balls on a plate.
Sprinkle corn starch on another small plate. Dust your hands with the corn starch. Using both your corn starch coated hands, pick up a black eyed pea ball and gently flatten it to form a disc like patty. Dust your hands again, and repeat with the other balls.
Heat a medium non-stick skillet with ½ teaspoon oil, add 2 patties, and cook on medium-high heat till the patties are golden on one side. Carefully flip them and brown the other side. Remove to a plate.
Add another 1/ 2 teaspoon oil to the pan, and cook the other 2 patties.
Serve like a burger with chipotle mayonnaise burger buns, tomato slices, lettuce, pickle etc. Or serve over salad greens with chipotle mayonnaise.
Chipotle Mayonnaise Recipe
¼ cup mayonnaise (vegenaise, silken tofu or tahini for vegans)
¼ to ½ teaspoon chipotle powder. Substitute with smoked or regular paprika
½ teaspoon lime juice
Whisk everything together in a small bowl. Keep chilled.
But where are the beer battered fries that go with the black bean cakes?!
Looks delicious, making this tonight, I have all the ingredients at home.
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love the idea..one can never go wrong with BEP!!
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I stumbled upon your space sometime now.I have to say now that you have a very beautiful space with a lots of tempting recipes and clicks are awesome indeed.
BEP is one of my favourite legume.Love these BEP cake.Bookmarked(^_^)
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Yum!! I see so many black bean cakes, chickpea cakes, but never black-eye peas. I can sometimes get fresh ones (not dried!) from a local farmer – they would be soo good in this recipe!
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The cakes and mayonnaise looks awesome!!! And brilliantly shot as well
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Delightful post! photographs recipes everything. I am loving the dark canvas in the pic. Brings out the texture of the food and the green so well.
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
April 11th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
thanks soma
i usually prefer lighter backgrounds, but decided to try something different this time 
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Your pics are so enticing! Everything is matching here. I use black-eyed peas very often, should try this. U got your blue tray finally?
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
April 11th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
no, that not a tray! its the cradboard box our nintendo wii came in
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I typically use lentils when making veggie burgers; never tried black eyed peas before they sound absolutely delicious!
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Wow love this one …what a wonderful idea …and looks so fab …
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was just thinking of making something similar..i make cous cous cakes and kidney bean ones…will surely give this a shot!!Love yr pics esp the one with the chair…
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I don’t often think to use black-eyed peas when I’m cooking for some reason. I should change that because these sound very good.
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What a great recipe! And your photographs – fabulous!
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This is just so gorgeous and looks yummy, Sala! The styling and lighting of these makes me think of Gourmet Traveller mag. Can you please send me some for lunch :-*
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Bookmarked! I have recently become a fan of BEP and i must try this:)
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So…just stumbling on this for the first time…..WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? looking fw to all of your posts going forward…
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
thank you
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Your imagery is always inspiring. I envy the time and space you have to take step-by-step pics
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There’s nothing like freshly cooked black-eyed peas, and I’m sure they make these cakes absolutely fantastic! Thanks for linking to my recipe!
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Love replicating restaurant food at home – and succeeding! Great post – love that you suggest a lazier option of making a mega-pattie! I’ve recently gotten quite sick of doing little patties and flipping them.
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love your veggie burger recipes and this one looks easy and exotic!
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I have yet to try black-eyed peas, but these wonderful cakes are so enticing!!!
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We have started eating lot of salads and sandwiches now a days. This would be the perfect addition.
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Oh… you have the BEST recipes! Will try.
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Thanks for the mention! Your cakes look perfectly delicious!
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I had this dish for the first time at a lovely Inn located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Upon my return home I had to find a recipe and unbelievably I live just a few miles from the inspiration for this one! I made it this evening and it was perfect! The instructions were helpful for a total non-chef like me. I believe that Inn five hours away copied YOUR recipe!
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
May 1st, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Haha! I am so glad you like this recipe. How wonderful that you live close to where the inspiration for this came from!
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I just made this. These are great. Don’t skip the lime zest! I used serrano instead of jalapeño and chick pea flour for cornstarch. I don’t think it mattered, but serranos may be a little more hot. I also made your Indian Fries. So good. Wish I would have went out to get the curry leaves though! I will be back here often. Wendy
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
May 2nd, 2011 at 9:45 am
Thanks for your kind comment, Wendy
<3
Serranos sound wonderful in the black eyed pea cakes! So does the chickpea flour! AP flour or rice flour will also work. What we want is a little coating on the cakes so the flour crisps up when it hits the hot pan.
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I made these for my partners birthday lunch and he loved them. In fact, we all did. Thanks for the great recipe.
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
June 22nd, 2011 at 3:28 am
great! glad you liked it! its one of my favorites!
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I have also been to The Spotted Dog and have been searching for a version of their Black Eyed Pea Cakes for months! I thought they were delicious and especially loved the tahini sauce that was served with them. I will surely try this recipe! Gorgeous pictures, by the way!
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Thanks so much for posting. I also had the cakes at the Spotted Dog and fell in love. I’ve been wanting to make them ever since I had them!
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Fantastic combination of otherwise dull ingredients that made for a delicious and creative patty. I soaked the black eyed peas for two days instead of cooking them (drain and rinse each day). Then used a food processor to blend the beans onions etc. Added a zucchini to the batter. Thanks for the idea.
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