Recipe: Sweet Potato Quinoa Burgers

This new recipe comes by way of my little sister which she found on a food blog, whose author ate at this restaurant in Grand Rapids, MI and found the original recipe on a cooking website.

When my little sister first made them for us they turned out to be massive patties of vegetable goodness falling everywhere out of the bun. I swore there must be a way to make them stick together better. My wife and I attempted a second time with the leftover veggie mixture for a longer cooking time, but again they fell apart. The third time (pictured) I sprayed more oil on the grill pan and made the patties a little bit smaller. After reading through the food blog and cooking website I think I’ve discovered my error. The cooking website notes to use:

“Pour a generous amount (8” depth) of grapeseed, canola, or vegetable oil in the bottom of a large skillet.  Heat the skillet to high heat, taking care not to let the oil smoke.”

Basically, you need to fry the patties so that they will stick together – not as healthful as I hoped. I’m thinking using a bit of egg in the mixture will help it congeal and keep the vegetable goodness less fried.

Here is the recipe that we adapted from the two listed online.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of diced onion
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 cups of cooked lentils
• 2 cups of cooked quinoa
• 1.5 cups of mashed sweet potato (about 2 sweet potatoes)
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup chopped kale
• 1.5 cups of oats (any kind)
• 0.5 teaspoon ground cumin
• 0.5 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder

Steps:

1. Pre-cook the lentils and quinoa.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. We used our food processor to blend everything together into a nice sweet potato “dough.” Let the mixture set in the fridge for 1 or 2 hours.
3. Saute the onions and garlic until the onions become clear.
4. Make the burger patties from the mixture. They can be as big as you want because they won’t shrink when cooked.
5. Place a thin layer of oil on a pan to cook the patties (we’ll try to cut down on the oil as much as we can – feel free to be as liberal as you need). We used a grill pan, but I think the uneven grill surface caused the burgers to separate more during the cooking process. A flat pan would be best.
6. Cook each side of the patty for 3-4 minutes.
7. Serve with ketchup, hot sauce, or I prefer a dab of hummus on top.