Sweet Potato Quinoa Burgers

These veggie burgers didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to. Taste got a 10. Texture got a 3. Something went wrong somewhere (I have a few ideas), or it's one of those recipes you have to fiddle around with. But again, as far as taste goes, these knocked it out of the park so I feel they are worth another try.

To make up for them being less than stellar, I'm including a brussel sprout-and-radish slaw that I shamelessly stole/copied from Mezon in Danbury, where we went with friends the other night for Tapas. I just made a little, thinking that only Jeeps and I would eat it.  But go figure, Panda kept dipping her spoon in and so did her friend who was over for dinner. These dang kids, you can never figure their tastes out.

Go Figure Sweet Potato Quinoa Burgers

  • 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 3 cups peeled and cubed sweet potatoes (I think I screwed up here because instead of measuring 3 cups of raw, cubed sweet potato and then steaming that amount, I measured 3 cups of steamed mashed sweet potato)
  • 3/4 cup sweet corn, frozen or fresh
  • 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup cooked quinoa (I didn’t screw up here; cook the quinoa first, then measure 1/2 cup)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Heaping 1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour, or finely ground rolled oats, or almond flour (I had none of these things but I did have almond meal.  Maybe it contributed to the mushy texture, maybe it didn’t)
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • Fresh black pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
  • 1 tbsp hot sauce

Fill a large pot 3/4 full of water and bring to a boil on the stove.  Add the sweet potatoes and lower the heat to simmering.  Let the potatoes cook for about 20-30 minutes.  Drain the potatoes and set aside to cool.  (You can also steam the potatoes in the microwave.)

While your potatoes are cooling preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or non stick foil.

Once your potatoes have cooled use a fork to mash them.  You want them mashed but not creamy.

In a large mixing bowl add half of the black beans and mash them with a fork.

Add the rest of the beans and the remaining ingredients.  Stir until just combined.  Form the mixture into 10 balls.  Each burger should be about 1/2″ thick.  Place each patty on your prepared baking sheet and place in the oven for 30 minutes, flipping the burgers over once halfway through baking.

Remove from the oven and serve.

I made the slaw by running 8 brussels sprouts and 4 radishes through the shredding disk on the food processor. Then I dressed it with lime juice, mayonnaise, and chopped cilantro. Raw brussies are bitter, so after combining all that, I started adding squeezes of honey and tasting until it was the perfect blend of sweet and sour. You'll know when you get it right.

Radish Cranberry Slaw

My cousin sent me this slaw recipe from Eating Richly and it's really dynamite. I halved the recipe just to see how it would go over, and there was nothing left. The author recommends it with pulled pork sandwiches, and I think it would be great with fish tacos. The only changes I made were using parsley instead of cilantro, and using equal parts mayonnaise and honey-mustard dressing because the dressing alone was too intense for the kids.

Radish-Cranberry Slaw (from Eating Richly)

  • 1 green cabbage thinly chopped
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup cilantro leave, chopped
  • 6 small to medium radishes sliced into matchsticks
  • 1/2-1 cup honey mustard (from a bottle or homemade)
  • salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients well adding salt and pepper to taste.  Let sit 20 minutes before serving.

Jicama Slaw

Just in case you were getting sick to death of celery-fennel slaw... I mean, I'm certainly not, I eat it at least once a week and am feeding my addiction by growing my own fennel bulbs (I've tried growing celery a couple times and royally suck at it). But a change is always good, and I have a new slaw for you to try and it's ever so very yum.

Jicama is the tuberous root of a native Mexican vine. It looks very much like a turnip and has the consistency of a water chestnut. Jicama and mango are a match made in heaven. This slaw would by dynamite with swordfish, which I didn't have, but it was just as dynamite on grilled salmon. It could also stand very respectably on its own. Had there been any left, I would've eaten it for breakfast.

Jicama-Mango Slaw

  • 1 jicama (fist-sized), peeled, sliced across, and then cut into matchsticks
  • 1 mango, peeled, sliced, and matchsticked. Peeling a mango is a tiresome job and I get around it by buying the pre-prepped stuff so all I have to do is slice or dice it how I want.
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced as thinly as possible
  • 10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 2 tbsp chopped, fresh cilantro
  • Vinaigrette of choice

Combine all ingredients and toss well.

Serve.

Die.

Springing Forward

Always fun to put the clocks ahead on a night when you're partying hard. Makes for an exhausting Sunday but I do love the extra hour of daylight.Between hangovers and lost time, we were all hitting the wall around 5:00 tonight. I knew it wasn't going to be anything more strenuous than toasted cheese and tomato soup.

Now, that gap that the spoon is lying across was supposed to be filled with something. See, I was jonesing for something toothsome like a slaw, and DeCicco's had these really cute bunches of easter egg radishes—white, pink, red, purple. I remembered seeing somewhere a recipe for radish-celery slaw. I had celery. I also had a bulb of fennel.

In the spirit of "don't make a lot of what you haven't made before," I sliced thin 4 radishes, and the very interior heart of two bunches of celery, leaves and all. Then half a bulb of fennel, core removed and sliced thin thin thin, then I chopped up some of the fronds as well for flavor. I tossed it all with the 1/2" of vinaigrette that was left in the bottle. It tasted awesome, and I took a small forkful over to Panda.

"Celery-fennel-radish slaw," I said. "What do you think?"

She wrinkled her eyebrows. "Should be creamier, like cole slaw. Can you put some mayo in it?"

Dammit, she was right. I put in a squeeze of mayo and it was totally, completely perfect.

Now, I set the bowl aside on the kitchen counter and went in search of my camera so I could capture this for the blog. When I got back, here's what I found:

Between the two of them, Lovely and Dovely here polished off THE ENTIRE BOWL!! ON CHIPS!! I could barely get in over their shoulders to take a picture of it, and the one I got is very washed out so you can't see the pretty red, pink and purple edges of the radishes.

I was going to file this under "salads" but I guess I'll file it under "appetizers" instead?