Sweet Potato & Bean Burgers

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Sometimes a recipe comes along that you just can't stop cooking and eating. This is one of those. I stumbled across it a couple of week ago on The Edible Perspective and we have been chowing down on these burgers ever since. I am a huge fan of making batches of food at the start of a week and then freezing it so that during the next few weeks when I am too tired (or lazy) to cook we can still eat a healthy & tasty meal. To be honest with you, the original recipe is pretty perfect so I haven't really messed with it. In addition you could always add a different mix of herbs & spices or more chilli to give the burgers a bit of a kick. I have also used chipotle bought from the Cambridge Chilli Company in the past which gives the burgers a lovely smokey flavour. 

Any time you're craving fast food, these burgers are a great alternative and if you have some stored up in the freezer they are just as quick as going out to pick up some food.

The recipe says it makes 8 but I ended up with 10

You will need-

• 15oz cooked, drained & rinsed black beans - first time round I used kidney beans with great results.
• 3 cups of sweet potato, cubed with skin on and steamed till soft. 
• 1/2 cup sweetcorn
• 1/2 a medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa (check out the video at the bottom for how to)
• 6 tbsp of oats ground up in a food processor
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, optional
• 1 tbsp
• Roasted Peppers to serve with, optional

When the potatoes & quinoa are cooked and ready to go pre-heat your oven to 200C. Mash half of the beans till they turn into a paste and then add the rest of the beans and mash very lightly and mix it all together. Mash the sweet potato lightly in a large bowl, leave some small chunks in.

Next stir in the salt, pepper & other herbs and spices along with the olive oil. Then just mix in the onion, garlic, corn, beans, quinoa, sunflower seeds, ground oats. Stir everything until its nicely combined and then taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Form the mixture into burgers and then cook in the oven on a greased pan or on greaseproof paper for around 15minutes on each side. If you prefer you can cook the burgers in a frying pan on a medium heat. Just heat a little oil and then cook them for 5 minutes on each side. Just be gentle so that they don't fall apart.

If you plan on freezing the rest, form the mixture into burgers and then wrap in foil. Cook from frozen on a slightly lower temperature for a little longer on each side.

I served my burgers with a tuscan kale salad, some mashed avocado mixed with lemon juice, cholula, garlic and seasoning and some roasted peppers. If you haven't made your own roasted peppers before you really should. They go well with so many things are are really easy to make. Simply clean and cut the pepper in half and place under the grill for around 5-10 minutes on each side until the skin gets burnt. Then place in a sandwich bag for 5-10 minutes. The steam will help you peel the peppers really easily (thanks Dan for this tip all those years ago!). Then all thats left to do is peel them and serve them. Any left overs can be kept in an airtight box with a little extra virgin olive oil drizzled on them. They are great in sandwiches or on pizzas but also add great flavour to a pasta sauce.

..and this is the lovely video of how to cook quinoa, great if you've never used it before.