White Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers

White Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers

These were not all that work intensive and they are TOTALLY DELICIOUS!  Amy and I each had three of them!  And there is more left over, so we can have them again in the next few days.  I baked the sweet potatoes, and we did not brush the burgers with olive oil.  Also, I didn't have any parsley, so I left that out, and I used panko bread crumbs, which made the burgers really fine crumbed.

I especially liked mine with vegan mayo and lettuce on pita bread.  YUM!

Fast food - what needs to actually happen

McDonalds is losing money, adding quarter pounders and other new items to try to revive flagging sales.  The thing is, all that stuff is still meat and dairy products deluxe.  Why not introduce some vegan items?  They would be healthier and I bet Mickey D's would see some increase in sales.  Is going cruelty-free so difficult?  Not only are vegetarian/vegan items better for the environment and healthier to eat, they mean less of a demand for products that come from cruelty to animals.

I'm trying to figure out what items would be on the menu at my ideal vegan fast food place.  Definitely a hummus entree, with pita bread chips or slices and veggie slices.  Maybe an offering of baby carrots and hummus.  Some sort of BBQ seitan sandwich, and fries - both potato and sweet potato.  A variety of salads - maybe two salads to start out with, traditional and ...oh, I'm not sure what else.  How about an order of vegan potato salad?  Or vegan tacos and burritos?  I could see a sweet potato and black bean burrito, since those items are inexpensive.  And some kind of veggie/corn salsa/black bean/avocado burrito similar to the veggie cantina burrito Taco Bell carries.  And make sure the burritos are seared on the outside after folded - Taco Bell, Qdoba and Chipotle all do this.  And perhaps a vegan chili bowl.  That would be good.

Just a few thoughts.  Of course, you wouldn't want to try to do too much.

Sweet potato and black bean stew with quinoa

I made up this recipe, because I didn't have all the ingredients for any of the recipes I looked up that involved sweet potatoes and black beans. 

First, I cooked a boatload of quinoa in my rice cooker.  Turned out pretty good, though I guess I needed to rinse the quinoa a little better.

Second, I diced and roasted two large sweet potatoes.  This was almost too much, except for the brazen sweet potato lover (me). 

In my soup/stew pot, I sautéed a diced onion and added a can of black beans (drained) and a can of diced tomatoes (with juice).  I seasoned it with a TBSP of chili powder and a tsp of cumin, as well as a dash of garlic powder.  TASTY!

I combined all these things and VOILA!  Pretty good for an improvised recipe.

The kids liked it better once they added some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Food wishes Chef John goes vegetarian (vegan, actually, if you leave out the sour cream, or use vegan sour cream).  My husband Marcus found this recipe on teh interwebs. This is what I'm making today.  I have transcribed the recipe from the video and am posting it below.  This is definitely a good cause, and especially as a vegan, I feel that we DO have enough food to feed the world - it's terrible that children starve, when if people adopted a vegan diet, we could feed everyone.  Just my opinion.  At any rate, sign the petition.  Kids need to be fed.  And we can start, by feeding our own children good nutritious food.

Here's the website to sign the petition:  Sweet Potatoes on the menu at One.org

And now, the transcribed recipe:

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Ingredients:

2 lbs orange-fleshed sweet potatoes

1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper, or to taste

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeno, sliced

1 tbsp cumin

2 or 3 tbsp Ancho chili powder, or other chili powders, or to taste

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 can (28-oz) diced or crushed tomatoes

1 cup water, more as needed
1 tbsp corn meal

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp unsweetened cocoa

2 cans (15-oz) black beans, drained, rinsed

cayenne to taste

vegan sour cream and cilantro to garnish, if desired

Peel and cube  3 sweet potatoes.  Place cubed sweet potatoes in a bowl and add salt and chipotle chili pepper and olive oil, stir to coat.  Place on baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes at 400ºF. 

Meanwhile,  sauté onion, red pepper and jalapeño , chili powder , cumin and oregano until onions are translucent.  Add crushed tomatoes and bring to a simmer, adding salt, sugar, water and corn meal.  While simmering, add cocoa and simmer for thirty minutes.  Stir in black beans and sweet potatoes, and keep warm until ready to eat.

Update:  This is positively delicious!  YUM YUM