It’s the height of summer so what better for a summer weekend feast than some healthy and delicious chickpea and sweet potato burgers.
Served with a delicious avocado and mango yogurt, zucchini fries and a tomato and fennel salad this really is a great weekend spread for all the family. I must admit it’s a bit of work getting everything prepped, but with a toddler and a one-year-old to feed it’s a great way of serving up a host of healthy goodness in a fun and colourful way. So, in the end, it’s absolutely worth it.
To streamline the operation simply replace the zucchini fries with frozen skinny fries in the oven. Jobs a good’n. These burgers, unsurprising, went down a right treat and why wouldn’t they, they’re delicious. Enjoy!
Serves 4-6
Prep time – 1 hour
cook time – 1 hour
For the burgers:
– 1 x medium sweet potato
– 1 x 400g jar of chickpeas
– 1/2 red bell pepper (diced)
– 1/2 red onion (diced)
– 2 x spring onions (diced)
– A generous dash of paprika
– Sea salt
– Fresh ground black pepper
– A handful of flat leaf parsley
– 1 x free range egg
– A handful of bread crumbs
– A handful of rolled oats
To serve:
– Burger buns (Preferably brioche. This time we just had regular which are fine too but, brioche are best)
– Cheese (your choice. We just had classic old school cheese slices but something more interesting like halloumi or mozzarella would work great)
– Mayo
– Baby gem lettuce
– Red onion
– Avocado and mango yogurt (see below)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees (400 F)
- Wash the sweet potato and prick all over with a fork
- Place in the oven for 50-60 mins or until soft and tender all the way through
- Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle
- cut in half, remove flesh, discard skin and break up flesh by hand
- Drain chickpeas, rinse, pat dry, then mash
- Place all ingredients into a bowl and combine
- At this stage, it’s up to you if you’d like to blitz the mix or leave as is. I chose to blitz half then re-combined by hand with the remaining half. It worked quite well.
- Form into 6 burgers and place into the fridge for at least one hour to firm up
- Roast in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 mins then transfer to a hot frying pan (with olive oil) to finish. This will bring the colour and crisp to the party.
- Melt cheese on top
- Serve on toasted buns with a touch of mayo, lettuce, red onion and the avocado and mango sauce
For the avocado and mango yogurt:
– 1 x large ripe avocado
– 1/2 small ripe sweet mango
– A handful of cilantro
– Juice of 1 lime
– Sea salt
– Fresh black pepper
– A dash of paprika
– 3 x tbsp Greek yogurt
Method:
- Slice in half and remove stone from avocado, cut into chunks while still in skin and transfer flesh to food processor with a spoon
- Repeat the same approach with the mango
- Add paprika, lime juice, cilantro, salt, pepper and yogurt and blitz (if you don’t have a food processor simply mi and mash with a fork in a bowl)
For the tomato and fennel salad:
– 250g baby tomatoes
– 1 bulb fennel
– A handful of fennel tops
– Good olive oil
– Sea salt
– Fresh ground black pepper
– Balsamic vinegar
Method:
- wash and slice the tomatoes in half
- Wash and slice the fennel into thin rounds
- Mix in a bowl with the fennel tops
- Add a healthy drizzle of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar
- Add salt and pepper to season
- Mix well
- The salad is ready to serve as is but if you have time a good chill in the fridge for an hour or so will help the flavours develop
For the Zucchini fries:
– 4 x medium zucchini
– 100g breadcrumbs
– 100g Parmesan (finely grated)
– Paprika or cayenne pepper
– Sea salt
– Fresh ground black pepper
– 50g butter
Method:
- Peel the zucchini, slice in half lengthways, remove seeds and cut into fries
- Add the breadcrumbs, parmesan, salt, pepper and paprika or cayenne pepper to a large bowl and mix
- Melt the butter in a pan
- Lightly oil two baking trays
- Dip the fries in the butter then coat in the breadcrumb mix making sure to shake off any excess
- Lay evenly on the two baking trays
- Place into oven for 20 mins or until crisp
