Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers
By Kerry Graff
These smoky sweet potato black bean burgers make a frequent appearance at my house. Easy to throw together (especially if you have already batch-baked some sweet potatoes for the week!) and have minimal ingredients, all of which are typically found in my plant-based pantry. I always double the recipe and then freeze the extras with parchment paper in-between to prevent them from sticking together.
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 60 minutes | Total: 75 minutes | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato
1 - 15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed (1.5 cups)
1/4 cup small red onion, chopped
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
Optional ingredients for serving:
Salad greens, with or without other veggies and balsamic vinegar for dressing
Whole wheat or gluten free burger buns with your choice of: lettuce, tomato slices, red onion (you already cut one up anyway!) and pickle slices, as well as your condiment(s) of choice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the sweet potato in half lengthwise and place face down on parchment paper covering a baking pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, until soft. Remove from oven and lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Save the parchment paper, as you will use it later!
When the sweet potato is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and add the flesh to a large bowl. Mash with a fork or potato masher if you have one, add the black beans and slightly mash the beans into the sweet potatoes, leaving some beans whole.
To the bowl with the sweet potatoes and black beans, add the diced red onion, oats, cumin, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and salt (if using). Stir well with a large spoon until combined. Taste and add more salt if desired.
Form mixture into patties about 1 inch thick. Place burgers on the baking sheet, reusing the parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes, flip carefully and bake for 15 more minutes. Remove from oven.
Pick an option for serving. (I personally adore these with smoky BBQ sauce but honey mustard is a very close second!)