Of the last bag of black beans, half went in chili and half was set aside. Last night I sorted, quick-soaked, rinsed, and cooked another bag (Iberia brand). Today I blenderized the leftovers plus the new batch. Water was necessary, between a quarter and a half-cup; I also used some olive oil, maybe 2-3 tbsp for the whole 1.5x batch. The result was about 4 cups of lovely purple bean paste.

Purple!

Spooned about a cup into my 4-cup measuring cup. Preheated my nonstick pan on medium heat with a tbsp of olive oil, while I mixed in a couple forkfuls of Vigo sliced Kalamata olives and 2 jumbo eggs. The viscosity of the result is comparable to pancake batter. Heated on medium heat until the bottom had set (slid easily in the pan), left it on a few more minutes at slightly lower heat.

egg is crucial
My alpha experiments with chickpea started with no egg, then 1 egg per 2 cups paste, then 1 egg to 1 cup. Even at 1:1, the binding was not appreciable. Something magical happened in the step up from 1 egg to 2 eggs per cup of paste though.

The first pour thinly covered the bottom of the pan, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the mix. It held together very nicely when I went to flip it, so my doubts about the egg-to-paste ratio were allayed. The difference in binding between this and the chickpea version was immediately evident in the distinct, solid edges, vs. the chickpea crumbly at the edges.

Second pour, I shot the whole remainder of my mix. Needless to say, it came out thicker. The cake threatened to break as I turned it, but basically held, so that's good.

I have another 3 cups to mix, one of which will certainly get some garlic-basil pesto instead of olives. Ideally the olives should get pureed with the beans, and half as much as I used would be just fine (i.e. maybe 3 forkfuls per 1-bag batch). I'd say run it through the blender again in unit batches, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in the more times I have to clean the blender.

The mix itself is bland enough that I predict it will lend itself to breakfast treatments, e.g. frozen blueberry and/or strawberry, maybe some applesauce to promote blender flow.

I laid the first (thinner) cake in an 8-cup storage container, dusted with parmesan/romano cheese, spread a layer of cold chili, another dusting of cheese, half the thicker bean cake, another sprinkle of cheese, more chili, cheese, last half cake, cheese, chili, cheese and voila, a very high protein gluten-free savory casserole. The bean cake absorbed excess moisture from the chili, which was an ongoing visual turn-off for me. For heating, I carved off about a third and scattered it in a bowl topped with a deli slice of sharp cheddar, nuked 3 minutes at 60% power, and punched myself in the mouth with deliciousness.