Sweet potato-black bean burgers
Last year, hubs and I got a veggie spiral cutter and I went to town using it on just about any veggie that would stand up to the spiral-cutting blade. (Check out that post here!) I had made hubby lots of chicken Amatriciana over sweet potato “noodles,” and since I had never gotten to taste those sweet potato spirals tossed in the bacon-drenched sauce, I decided to run some more of those orange-fleshed tubers through the spiralizer to make sweet potato-black bean burgers – an impromptu meal that turned out to be Hella-good, as hubby likes to say!
Among all of the veggies and recipes I experimented with, my favorite was my sweet potato-black bean burgers. These delicious vegan burgers are a staple in my house – perfectly crispy on the outside, and tender and flavorful on the inside, and they’re even better topped with a fresh mash of avocado and lime, and a scoop of salsa. They’re also great for batch-cooking, as they freeze wonderfully.
I grind my own oats with my spices to make an out flour; but, even though the recipe calls for oats, you could certainly substitute almond flour instead to make these grain-free. Then, I either spiralize the sweet potatoes or shred them in my food processor and steam them in a shallow pan so that they cook up quickly and evenly. Par-cooking the sweet potatoes makes them nice and tender for the burgers; but, it’s important not to over-cook the tubers, as they will become more like mashed sweet potatoes and not hold their shape well in the burger. While the sweet potatoes cook, I mash up a can of drained and rinsed black beans, roasted jalapeno or chipotle in adobo, fresh scallions, and then add in the ground oat mixture. I mix the black bean mash with the cooked potatoes, patty them up into burgers and bake them at 350F for about 20-30 minutes.
Sweet potato-black bean burgers
1 sweet potato (medium to large)
1 can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup oats
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin seed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
1 scallion, minced
1/2 roasted jalapeno, minced OR 2 Tbsp. chipotle in adobo sauce
For serving:
avocado
fresh lime juice
salsa
Preheat the oven to 350 F. First, shred the sweet potatoes in a food processor or spiralize them using the medium-size blade on your spiralizer to get perfect noodle-like spirals (and no need to peel the potatoes first – the skin is the best part and it cooks and mashes up just as well as the rest of the potato). Steam the sweet potatoes in a shallow pan with about 1/4 cup of water for about 10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are just cooked through, but not mushy. Remove from the pan and set the sweet potatoes aside. In a large bowl, mash the black beans with the roasted jalapeno, or the chipotle in adobo (if using), and scallion. Add in the sweet potatoes, and mash altogether in a rough chunky mash. Set aside. In a food processor, blend up the oats, chili powder, cumin seed, salt, smoked paprika, and dried oregano until the consistency is almost that of wheat flour. Add the oat flour blend to the black bean-sweet potato mixture, and stir to combine until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Form the mixture into about 5 or 6 patties, and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 350 F for about 20-30 minutes, or until the burgers are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Top with salsa and a mash of avocado and fresh lime juice.