So we are on a healthy diet at our house, which has taken us the vegan route. It was super hard at first (until we got all the contraband out of the house), but it has been so much fun exploring with new recipes! I have always been a huge fan of veggie burgers and so I decided i should attempt to make my own!
I started off by following Angela over at Oh She Glows recipe for Spicy BBQ Chickpea Burgers. Of course I can’t follow a recipe to save myself so I just used it as a guide. I had a can of garbanzo beans that I had been saving for hummus, but I figured this was a worthy cause. I mashed those beyond recognizable belief and then looked around at what other veggies i had around the house. I ended up using the leftover broccoli slaw from the won-ton’s I made the other night so that got chopped up and thrown in. I also threw in a handful of sunflower seeds, about 1/4 cup of diced onion, a few shakes of red pepper flakes, a couple spoonfuls of minced garlic and a BIG squirt of BBQ sauce. I also cooked up some quinoa and used about a cup of that to bind it with maybe 1/4 cup of bread crumbs.
Once that was all mixed up in the bowl I formed patties with my hands and laid them out on wax paper. This was really fun, because they actually looked like the store bought veggie burgers! I heated up a little bit of live oil in my grill pan, because I wanted to make sure my burgers got a crispy crust when I cooked them. Then you just cook them up like a regular burger! Super easy and delicious!
On to the sweet potato fries. I always start off my potatoes in the microwave, it makes them easy to cut, and guarantee that they will be soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside (do you see a theme here)! Once they are mostly cooked you slice them up and finish them in a pan with a little bit of olive oil. This is also when you add whatever seasonings you want. I usually use cajun seasonings and garlic powder.
You can also top these burgers with yummy things like sauteed mushrooms and onions, avocado and pico de gallo, or the old fashioned way with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle!
These were a huge hit in my house with ALL my kids eating them all up! They love sweet potato fries and these burgers are a great addition to any healthy diet!
