I don’t know about where you are guys, but with the weather this good, the Greek BBQ and dining ‘al fresco’ season is now officially open. To celebrate we’ve cooked up a new kind of veggie burger, which will keep plant-eating folks happy and their omnivorous friends jealous:). Presenting… Our vegan sweet potato burger…
These burgers are delicious, filling and so easy to put together and you can enjoy them one of two ways. The lean way is to use cooked chickpeas and fry the burger on a hot griddle pan using a minimum amount of oil. The more indulgent way is not to cook your chickpeas (but still soak them) and then fry the patties in a generous (about 1 cm) amount of fairly hot oil until golden brown and crispy on the outside.
Being a bit health conscious, I prefer the former and Duncan, being the skinny whippet dog always opts for the latter. Either way, they are seriously good.
For the burger base, I used chickpeas because I’m slightly obsessed with them but you can easily use other beans you have on hand: black beans, red kidney beans, cannelloni beans. Sweet potato gets a bit of smokiness from paprika and a bit of kick from cayenne pepper and they marry up with slices of creamy avocado perfectly well.
METHOD 1 – lighter and healthier
- 1 small sweet potato (½ cup roasted & mashed sweet potato)
- 3 cups of cooked chickpeas
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, finely diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped tsp cayenne pepper
- 3 tsp cumin
- 1 heaped tsp smoked (mild) paprika
- handful of coriander, finely chopped
- 2 flax eggs
- black pepper
- oil, for frying
METHOD 2 – with a crispy exterior and soft interior
- 1 small sweet potato (½ cup roasted & mashed sweet potato)
- 1 and ½ dry chickpeas soaked overnight
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, finely diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped tsp cayenne pepper
- 3 tsp cumin
- 1 heaped tsp smoked (mild) paprika
- handful of coriander, finely chopped
- 2 flax eggs
- black pepper
- oil, for frying
- First, pre-heat the oven to 200° C / 400° F and prepare flax eggs.
- Cut your sweet potato into quarters lengthwise, brush a bit of olive oil on it and put into a hot oven for about 30 min – until you can pierce the flesh with a knife easily.
- For METHOD 1: Heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Add in onion and fry until translucent. Add in garlic and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside.
- Put chickpeas into a food processor and pulse a few times. Personally, I like them to be a bit coarse so that I get a few bits of chickpeas in my burgers, but you can process them more if you like your burgers to be smoother.
- Transfer chickpeas into a large mixing bowl. Put your roasted sweet potato into the food processor (no need to wash it) and turn the baked flesh into a sweet potato mash. You could also just use a fork or a potato masher, but I don’t like the extra washing up.
- Add all other burger ingredients to the bowl with chickpeas and mix well.
- Form patties using your hands – if the mixture isn’t sticky enough, add a few drops of water. Place formed patties in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
- For METHOD 1: Heat up a griddle pan, brush your patties with olive oil and fry until browned on both sides.
- For METHOD 2: Pour about 1 cm of oil into a pan. Slowly heat up the oil. After a few minutes, you can test the oil by putting a bit of the mixture in it. If the oil around it sizzles and the mixture is getting brown slowly (i.e. doesn’t not burn straight away), the oil is at the correct temperature. Place several burgers in the oil and fry them for about 4-5 minutes (depending on thickness) before flipping them to the other side for another 5 minutes. Fish them out and place on a piece of kitchen towel to get rid of excess fat.