What's for Lunch: Black Bean Burger

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

No, this isn't a hamburger, although it looks very much like one. Chartwells at its menu website called it a "spicy black bean burger on a whole wheat roll."

I would love to know where the black been burger came from. I guess I'll have to do some snooping around to find out, since the info isn't posted by Chartwells or the schools.

But here's where it gets even more interesting. What looks like a salad of romaine lettuce and tomato on the side is actually intended as a topping for the burger. And in that plastic cup--what the kids throught was salad dressing--was actually an "ancho sauce" that was supposed to be spread on the burger as well.

I didn't see any of the kids using the salad or the sauce the way. This is where parent volunteers in the cafeteria could help out: coaching the kids on the food and how to eat it. But that doesn't seem to be a particular priority at the moment.

The vegetable on the tray is "herb-roasted potato wedges with shredded carrot." The potatoes, of course, arrive frozen. I didn't see a lot of shredded carrot. Have you ever heard of shredding carrots on roasted potatoes? That's a novel concept, I think.


Here's what the burger looked like with the top down.