This is one of the simplest burger I have ever made. It is hearty, delicious and easy to make. I have tried so many recipes that end up with mushy or crumbly patties. But this recipe makes the PERFECT veggie burger. Recipe is adapted from Tricia Yearwood’s recipe for Sweet Pea burger on Food Network. What I love about this recipe is that it uses pantry staple ingredients and there is no chilling or freezing time.
Ingredients needed
As the title suggests, this recipe needs 2 main ingredients - Sweet Potato & Chickpeas. I use orange sweet potatoes that are commonly available in the US. But feel free to use any variety of sweet potato. These are also known as yams. You may have to adjust the number of tubers used based on their size. I have made this recipe with canned chickpeas and even cooked dried ones. There is no significant difference in both. I feel canned chickpeas are convenient and make it very easy to make these veggie burgers. Flour, breadcrumbs act as binding. I use whole wheat flour and plain breadcrumbs. Feel free to use all-purpose flour and whole wheat breadcrumbs. To make this a 100% vegan burger recipe, I used nutritional yeast to add cheesiness and umami flavor. Substitute with parmesan cheese for a vegetarian version. I kept the flavors simple with just dried Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Feel free to jazz up the flavors with chili powder, ground cumin, fresh herbs etc.
How to Make the Patties?
Roasted sweet potatoes give these veggie burgers lots of flavors. The roasting process caramelizes the sugars and makes them extra sweet and delicious. Alternately you can boil and mash them too, but the flavor might be slightly different. So start by roasting the sweet potatoes. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Poke holes in them and bake for 45 minutes ~ 1 hour until fork tender. Remove from the oven and let cool. When cool enough to handle, halve the sweet potato and scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl. Add chickpeas to the sweet potato flesh and mash into a coarse paste. Add flour, breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast, dried Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Divide the mixture into 6 equal size patties. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, add the oil. Gently place the patties in the skillet and cook until the patties are brown and crisp on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Serve over burger buns with your favorite sandwich accoutrements.
Can these burgers be frozen?
Yes, these burgers freeze very well. So make sure to double the recipe to make extras. Wrap each of them in plastic and then stash them in a freezer safe ziploc bag, so you can pull one out when you want. Do not thaw the frozen patties. Just cook them a longer until they are nicely heated through.
Can these be Grilled?
Yes!! As mentioned before these sweet potato chickpea burgers are hearty and sturdy. They do not crumble or turn mushy while cooking and this applies to even the grill. So, go ahead and heat up that grill.
Tips
Use any variety of sweet potato in this recipe. Make sure to bake more tubers if they are smaller than the orange variety.Either all-purpose or whole-wheat flour can be used.Substitute plain breadcrumbs with whole-wheat.Substitute nutritional yeast with parmesan cheese for a vegetarian version. You can boil the sweet potatoes instead of roasting them. Make sure to drain the water really well to avoid soggy patties. These burgers freeze very well. So make sure to double the recipe to make extras. Wrap each of them in plastic and then stash them in a freezer safe ziploc bag, so you can pull one out when you want.
Recipes to try:
Here are a few recipes that you might want to try:
Adzuki bean & brown rice burger - yet another delicious and fool proof recipe for vegan burger.Spelt sweet potato paratha - healthy Indian flatbread made with spelt flour and mashed sweet potato.Sweet potato & black bean empanada - popular Latin style street food made with a healthy filling.
