Spicy black-bean cakes

INGREDIENTS

• Lime Sour Cream:
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1 small fresh jalapeno pepper, minced
• salt to taste
• 
  
• Bean Cakes:
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 cups grated raw sweet potato
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup plain dried bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. To prepare lime sour cream, mix the sour cream, lime juice, 1 small minced jalapeno, and salt together in a small bowl. Cover, and refrigerate.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook green onions until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in garlic, 2 diced jalapenos, and cumin; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Transfer contents of skillet to a large bowl. Stir in black beans, and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in sweet potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs. Divide into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.
4. In the oven, set cooking rack about 4 inches from heat source. Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil.
5. Place bean patties on baking sheet, and broil 8 to 10 minutes. Turn cakes over, and broil until crispy, about 3 minutes more. Serve with lime sour cream.

RESULTS: I don't tend to have much luck with "____ Cakes." They tend to fall apart in the pan and taste greasy, even my beloved Crab cakes are more like crab crumble. (I read that one way to help this is to put the mixture in the fridge for an hour before forming the cakes, so the bread crumbs can help everything stick better, but I haven't tried it yet.) I thought these might do the trick since they're broiled, so there's not much flipping. Neither Chris nor I hold much with sour cream (although I think you could substitute yogurt cheese for sour cream), so I served with cheddar cheese and taco sauce. I also cut the garlic waaaay back, since I have to talk to people at work tomorrow. Turned out not bad. One of my favorite parts were the scallions, so don't leave those out. Definitely don't skimp on the salt, it needs it.

One thing that could have been better is that it really wasn't very moist. I guess when I think beans, I think a thick sauce, plump beans, etc, and this was dry. We used a lot of taco sauce. But short of adding more egg or soaking the breadcrumbs in milk beforehand, which might work-- or might be awful, I'm not sure what to try. Suggestions?