Spicy Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burger

 A gluten free and vegan friendly black bean burger, kicked up a notch with roasted sweet potatoes and sriracha. Perfect for summer grilling, this black bean burger is healthy, filling, and most importantly, delicious!

Today I had an interesting realization. There are two types of sweet potatoes.

According to the Huffington Post, sweet potatoes can be orange or a pale-ish white, and the USDA just refers to the orange ones as yams. You see, I thought the terms were just kind of interchangeable, but that there was only one kind of sweet potato — the orange ones.

Well, the other day, we went to the grocery store, and for the first time ever, they had two bins — one labeled sweet potatoes, and one labeled yams. Forrest and I were a little confused, since the bin labeled sweet potato didn’t look like any sweet potato we had ever used before…but we bought them anyways.

We were even more confused when we sliced it open today, only to reveal a pale inside. At first, I was worried we had accidentally bought a regular potato. But after tasting it, I realized it definitely was a sweet potato, and that I had never actually seen this kind before.

Anyways. We bought sweet potatoes because I wanted to make black bean and sweet potato burgers! I saw a recipe floating around somewhere awhile back (I don’t remember where!) for sweet potato burgers, and it just sounded so delicious to me. So, I decided to revamp my favorite black bean burger that I shared last summer, for the last week of the clean eating challenge. I changed a few things around to make it gluten free and vegetarian/vegan friendly, added the sweet potatoes, and a little bit of sriracha...and I think I came up with something rather delicious.

The thing I love about black bean burgers is that I don’t feel all gross after eating one, like I do with regular hamburgers. There’s no grease, it’s full of power foods, and it just tastes delicious. You can make them on the grill, in the oven, or on the stove top, and they usually turn out great. Since we don’t have a grill, I love using our grill pan. There’s just something so satisfying about getting those grill marks that you just don’t get in the oven (I know, I’m weird.)

I think the addition of the sweet potato really kicked these up a notch, and brought a really unique flavor profile to the table (pun intended.) All the ingredients are super simple, and you can throw these together pretty quickly.  Oh, and the sriracha was definitely a tasty addition as well. Just so you know.

We ate these on whole wheat hamburger buns, (do you know how hard it is to find those?! And without high fructose corn syrup, too) and I also added some lettuce, tomatoes, and turkey bacon on top. So, obviously the version I ate isn’t vegetarian, but if you want them to be…just don’t add bacon (it’s not necessary. Just delicious.) Oh, and if you are eating gluten free, make sure to get gluten free buns. The burgers are gluten free, however, so long as you use GF oats!

 

Be sure to check out all these other recipes from participants in the Clean Eating Challenge, and enter the giveaway below!
Watermelon Juice – Rick•a•bam•boo

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burger – Clarks Condensed

Raw Almond & Arugula Pesto – Project Domestication

Roasted Broccoli and Red Peppers – Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Healthy Peanut Butter-Stuffed Chocolate Date Balls (Vegan; GF and Raw Option) – Wallflour Girl

Baked Sweet Potato Chips – Keep It Simple Sweetie

Lemon Cookies – Cooking with Curls

Rosemary Citrus Water – Delightful E Made

One Pot Pasta – Bite of Delight

Kalua Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa – Everyday Southwest

Miso Soup – Je suis alimentageuse

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