I hate to admit this but recently I’ve been struggling to eat my vegetables. Wearing the baby all day, bouncing him up and down to soothe the crying doesn’t allow me much time (or energy) for meal preparation. This means I eat a lot of cereal, peanut butter and jelly, and quesadillas.
I am often asked how I am able to manage this blog while caring full time for a two year old and newborn. I have three secrets.
One: I can put Eden in a chair with a pile of books and let her read for hours. She loves this.
Two: my AWESOME guest bloggers who have been helping me out since January. I’m freaking out a little at the idea of this coming to an end.
And three: other than the food I make for this blog, I don’t cook. Unless mixing a little Diaya cheese into some cooked pasta noodles counts. It doesn’t.
With the Superbowl and Valentine’s Day filling up my February posts, it’s been awhile since I’ve had a good, healthy, fresh, home cooked meal. So last week I started working on these Curried Sweet Potato Burgers. I needed to create something that was high in protein, filled with vegetables, and sweet enough that even Eden would love them (she’s been a picky eater recently).
Success! These Curried Sweet Potato Burger are all three and finger-licking good to boot. Serve them in a bun or over a bed of greens for a fantastic healthy meal.
- 1 cup dried yellow or red lentils
- 2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups cooked sweet potato, mashed
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 2 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 3/4 - 1 cup flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- coconut oil for sautéing
- tomato chutney (store bought or homemade)
- cilantro aioli (recipe follows)
- hamburger buns
- fresh arugula
- 1/2 cup Veganiase
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp cilantro leaves, minced
- Rinse lentils thoroughly and cook in 2 cups of water until very tender, 45-60 minutes. Meanwhile in a microwave or oven, bake sweet potatoes until soft. Once cooled, remove skin and mash.
- Saute onions and garlic in 1 tbsp of coconut oil until translucent. Add to cooked lentils along with spices, quinoa, spinach and mashed sweet potatoes. Stir to combine. While stirring add flour and cornstarch until fully incorporated.
- Shape into patties and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
- Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a nonstick skillet. Cook patties for about 5 minutes on each side until slightly browned.
- Prepare the aioli by mixing together all the ingredients. Top each burger with aioli, chutney and arugula and enjoy!
Help! What are your favorite easy-to-make healthy meals? I’m looking for dishes with lots of protein and lots of vegetables.
My Darling Vegan Newsletter
i love your little secrets. i wonder how you do it all, too! it’s so nice that eden can read on her own for hours at a time. what a big girl!
these burgers look awesome and definitely pack a nutritional punch. but, i must admit, there were times in my life where i ate pb&j for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and i actually loved it. maybe i would feel differently now, though.
Around the time that nash was born eden started playing and reading on her own really well. It’s not just my secret to bkogging it’s my secret to sanity
Oh my goodness these look so incredible- they are so on the list to make this week!
I’m impressed you even have time/energy to put together a PB & J!
I love a good veggie burger so these are going on my menu for the coming week. When I’m out of time and mealtime is looming – I almost always opt for rice and beans loaded with steamed veggies. Not sure how kid-friendly that is, however :-).
Ha, thanks Annie. Some days I barely do have time for a pb&j. Eden loves rice and bean so I should certainly do more of them.
Those look yummy!
Aw she is so cute!
My burger patties always look so deformed and ugly. Yours are beautiful! What’s the scoop??
These are really easy to shape so I didn’t have any problem but you could always try pressing them into a round cookie cutter to shape them if you’re struggling.
Oh my – these burgers look so juicy and tasty! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
you are doing awesome! those fat burger patties oh my 🙂
I have to write up a post for you too. should be done this week:)
I thought about you when I worked on this post. You’re the burger master as well as the curry queen so I am flattered by your comments 🙂
I saw the burger and I started salivating! But I had to convince Jon to give your recipe a try because he has an aversion to sweet potatoes (bad childhood memories of having to eat marshmallow-topped sweet potato dishes for Thanksgiving and Christmas). I made them tonight and he said they were the best vegan burgers he has ever tasted! Yea! Thanks, Sarah!
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. I love that kind of feedback. And yeah, those marshmallow topped sweet potato casseroles are pretty bad.
Oh wow these look fab! I’d happily eat my way through a giant stash of these stored in the freezer.
I’m impressed you manage to cook at all seriously. I’ve just had my little nephew and niece (4 and 7) to stay for 24 hours or so and am absolutely wiped! I also realized that I’d eaten no fruit or vegetables today until dinner time when they’d gone home. I barely found time to eat at all!
I know, it’s crazy how hard it is to eat with kids around! Sometimes I feel like preparing Eden lunch is the same as me eating and I don’t realize until four or five how hungry I am!
These look great, I think we’re gonna make them on Friday! I don’t really like to use quinoa though, do you think rice would substitute well?
Thanks!
I’m glad you’re going to try them, Michelle. Rice would work fine as a replacement for quinoa.
lots of work but so delicious. we loved them!
Love the sound of these. i never thought of adding lentils to veggie burgers but sounds brilliant! Will have to try making these : ))
I hope you do! The lentils are great for extra protein and helping it stick together.
Oh. My. God. These were AMAZING. I substituted the lentils with soaked & blended cashews, since I had them on hand. Mix that with a flavorful homemade tomato chutney, ciabatta rolls, and kale chips, and we had a WONDERFUL vegan dinner. Thank you so much for an amazing recipe!!!
Sounds awesome with the cashews! Going to have to try that. Thanks for sharing! So glad you liked them.
How do you make the tomato chutney in this recipe? Would love to make this soon 🙂
I used store bought chutney but if you want to make your own I would suggest using Vegan Richa’s recipe (veganricha.com)
Thank you for a great meal!
I made it a few days ago and it went out great… 🙂
Thank you so much Sarah for this awesome recipe, made it today and turned out tooooooooooo good….kids loved it too!!! 🙂
So glad? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sarah, this is an amazing-sounding recipe and I’d really like to make these for my birthday party coming up. I have a couple of gluten-intolerant guests though and I’ve never cooked gluten-free before so I’m wondering should I just substitute a gluten-free flour on a 1:1 ratio?
Yeah, a gluten-free flour mix should work 1:1. Hope it’s a hit a the party!
I’ve been thinking about making these, but don’t have lentils in the house! Is there something that would be a yummy alternative? Like chickpeas or beans? Or would that change it up too much?
You should try it with chickpeas. I think the flavor and texture would be great! If you try it. Let me know how it turns out.