Spicy Quinoa Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger

A delicious, plant based twist on a classic American favorite!

Yields: 6 patties
Total Time: 50 minutes
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes

Don’t settle for those strange soy based burgers with all the foreign ingredients you can’t even pronounce, with this recipe we’re creating a notion to end any weird stigma that veggie burgers may have!  This recipe will satisfy any palette with its wide array of flavors and textures, your taste buds will surely be thanking you later for this one. Not to mention that these are packed with nutrients and protein, so your body will be thanking you later too. And if you’re someone who is new to or easing into the whole plant based thing, you’ll be please to find out that these patties even look like a real meat burgers, no joke. And with the right seasonings, could even smell like one too. They even sizzle like real burgers when being pan fried!

Burgers are a classic go to that undoubtedly everybody loves, meat eater or not. What we love most about burgers is that they are so customize-able, so that being said, the toppings you choose are a key component. Before we started our work in the kitchen, we set out to our local health food store Down To Earth and picked up a few things to bring even more life to these larger than life veggie patties. We bought clover sprouts, avocado, and all great burgers need a great bun so we grabbed some locally made buns by Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop that are dairy and egg free! And to take it even a step further, we also topped our burgers with some of our homemade roasted red pepper hummus and coleslaw and a couple things we had laying around like red onion, carrot, and tomato.

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-Ingredients-

• 1 can black beans
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil (for patty mixture)
• 1/3 cup scallions
• 2/3 cup corn kernels
• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 cup dried oats (to be blended)
• 2 flax eggs*
• 1 tsp red curry paste
• 2 tbsp chili garlic paste

*See here how to make flax eggs

-Directions-

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Make 2 flax eggs*, set aside.
3. Bring one cup of water to a boil in medium sized saucepan, once boiling then add quinoa. Bring that to a boil then once boiling, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Poke potato with fork several times and cook in microwave for 4 minutes or until soft. Be careful not to overcook. Or you can alternatively roast in oven for about 20 – 30 minutes.
5. Once cooked, carefully remove most of potato skin as possible. Transfer to large bowl and mash.
6. In separate pan, saute scallions with garlic in olive oil for a few minutes. Then add in corn and black beans and 1 tbsp chili garlic paste. Saute for few minutes longer, salt and pepper to taste.
7. Put oats in blender and blend on high speed until you get a powder like consistency.
8. Combine potatoes, saute, oat powder, flax eggs, olive oil, nutritional yeast, curry paste, remaining chili paste and rest of seasonings. Mix and mash together.
9. Divide mixture into 6 equal parts and shape into patties.
10. Lightly brown patties in sauce pan with 1 tbsp olive oil on medium to high heat. 1 minute on each side or until each side is lightly browned
11. Transfer patties to greased baking sheet and bake in oven for 10 minutes.
12. Chop up your favorite toppings and throw a bun on it!
    

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