Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

I made these last night in a size a little smaller than a regular burger, but not as small as a slider. They came out fantastic! Another lovely addition to my veggie burger recipes. I will most certainly make these again.

INGREDIENTS:

For Roasted Sweet Potato Bits:

• 1 medium sized sweet potato
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cumin

For Burgers:

• 1 batch of chilled Roasted Sweet Potato Bits
• 1 can cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1  small yellow onion roughly chopped
• 1/2 of a fresh jalapeno, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled, and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs 
• 1 egg
• onion rings for topping
• paprika chipotle sauce for topping

To make the roasted sweet potato bits, preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Chop sweet potato into small bite sized cubes, and combine with seasoning and oil in a ziplock bag. Shake until they are well coated.

Place sweet potatoes on the lined baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes, until they are soft and are starting to caramelize. Set aside to cool.

To make the burgers, first add the onion, garlic and jalapeño into the food processor and pulse until the ingredients are finely chopped (scrape down the sides and repeat if necessary.) 

Add half of the black beans, half of the sweet potato bits, cilantro, cumin and salt into the food processor with the finely chopped veggies, and pulse (scraping down sides if needed) until it becomes a chunky cohesive paste.

Scrape this mixture into a bowl and add the rest of the black beans, sweet potato bits, panko and egg. Mix until combined. If the mixture seems to wet add in a little more panko, you want to be able to form these guys into patties without it being to sticky.

Roll the mixture into balls about the size of the patties you want. This made about 9 small/ medium sized patties.

In a large cast iron skillet heat up just enough veggie oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Flatten each ball into the size patty you want, and when the oil is hot- fry the patties for about 4 minutes on each side until they are brown and crusty. Don't over crowd the pan- you can fry them in batches.

Place on a plate with paper towel to soak up the access oil.

Serve on a bun with crispy onion rings and paprika chipotle sauce.

There was just something about this awesome burger, you can taste the sweet potato- cumin and the amazing fresh cilantro… then that special sauce I made, with just a little kick and salty lemon peel in it. It was so yum! Everyone enjoyed them, and none of us are vegetarians. Cheers!