Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers

If you’re a vegetarian craving the taste of meat (without changing your diet), look no further than this recipe.

It was a Friday evening. For me, it was one of those winter nights I just didn’t feel like going out. My friend Emma, laying low after a wild night at Igloofest, asked me if I wanted to get together and cook. We’ve long talked about trying to make sweet potato black bean burgers, and these did not disappoint.

   

I used inspiration from various recipes… this one is definitely a mash up.

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 large can black beans (28 oz)
• 1.5 cups brown rice (cooked)
• 1.5 onions
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2-3 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 cup gluten free flour
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• spices: salt, pepper, lemon pepper, cayenne, cajun, paprika, cumin, south african smoke

We didn’t mean to, but we ended up making a huge batch. This recipe yielded 20-25 burgers, so if you’re not looking to feed more than a few people, I think you could safely cut this recipe in half. You may still have leftovers. Prep time: approx 30-45 minutes.

For the fastest way to cook your sweet potatoes, cut some holes in them, put them on paper towel, and microwave them for 12-14 minutes. They should come out very hot, but also nice and soft. Cut them into cubes, and throw them into a large mixing bowl (we used a pot).

With the sweet potatoes, toss in the cooked rice and black beans (drain the can first). Begin to mash the mixture using a hand masher.

Chop the onions and garlic, and throw those in as well. Add the flour, worcestershire sauce, and tahini. Continue to mash as well as you can. Throw in your spices. If you don’t feel like using all of the spices we did, you obviously don’t have to. Since our recipe turned out to be massive, we threw in quite a bit of each spice (probably a few teaspoons).

Before you’re ready to make them into patties, taste it! Does it have all the flavors you want? Even after throwing a fair amount of spices in, they could’ve been even spicier.

“This semi resembles prison food, but I know it’s gonna be good” -Emma

According to Emma, who was doing most of the mashing, “this semi resembles prison food but i know its gonna be good.” So if the mixture looks like prison food, you’re probably ready to form the patties.

We formed pretty large patties, probably about 2 inches in diameter (but it’s tough to say). They could’ve been smaller if you wanted to make them more like appetizer size (they’d probably stay together better, too). But we were feeling ambitious.

Since we had 23 uncooked patties on our hands, we weren’t sure what the best way to cook these the fastest. Therefore, we threw some in the oven at 350 while we were frying the first batch. I’m not sure if this made any sense or any difference, so you could probably skip this step.

Now, to the frying. In a large frying pan, heat a layer of oil for a few minutes. Then, drop your patties in. They should take about 4-6 minutes to get nice and brown on each side. Once they’re done, I advise putting them in the oven at 200 to keep them warm and also to bake a bit of the grease off (this step I do advise).

Your burgers are now ready to be dressed. We settled on wrapping them in lettuce, with sliced tomatos, Trader Joe’s Corn and Chile Salsa, and cilantro. Feel free to add ketchup, mustard, or cheese as necessary. It was a great choice and the burgers were delicious. They were definitely a bit delicate (probably in part to the size of the patties), but nonetheless some of the most awesome veggie burgers I’ve ever tasted.