Sweet Potato Burgers

Sweet potatoes have become a new family favorite.  I never really gave them much thought, for me they were a food served either mashed at holidays or mashed to babies, but not an everyday kind of food.

A few years ago I discovered they were super yummy baked up as fries, but again only an occassional food.

Then a few months ago I made Sweet Potato Falafel as a Secret Recipe Club dish. We became hooked and sweet potatoes are now a regular in the rotation. The Falafel is definitely our favorite, but these burgers are a close second.  They are really just a variation of my Sweet Potato Quesadilla, but it's the Chipotle Avacado Sauce that put these burgers over the top.

Sweet Potato Burgers (Ziplist)

• Serves	Cook Time	Total Time	Prep Time	Publisher
  6	10 minutes	1 hour	50 minutes	everydaymom

• Ingredients 

• • 3 cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
  • 1-2 cloves roasted garlic (having a head of roasted garlic in the fridge is always wonderful)
  • 1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

• Instructions 

1. In a large bowl combine sweet potatoes, garlic and beans roughly mash together. Add remaining ingredients stirring until just combined. Refrigerate mixture for 15-20 minutes.
2. Preheat frying pan over medium heat, add 2-3 tablespoons olive oil and heat. Evenly divide mixture into 6 loosely packed burgers. Place in hot pan and cook 6-8 minutes on each side. The mixture is wet so be sure to allow each side to cook until brown before flipping.
3. Serve on toasted roll with chipotle avocado sauce, lettuce and additional avocado slices.

Chipotel Avocado Sauce (ziplist)

• Ingredients 

  • 1 large avocado
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 2 Tablespoons Adobo chipotle sauce

• Instructions 

  1. In medium bowl mash avocado. It doesn't need to be completely smooth some lumps are fine and make for a wonderful texture. Add yogurt and chipotle sauce. Stir until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste

Eggplant Parmesan

I love my vegetable delivery service - Washington's Green Grocer.  I have written about them before and I know I will write about them again. They are not a CSA, they provide fresh, high quality produce year round.  During the growing season they provide local produce as much as possible, but by going outside the growing area we can also get bananas, oranges and other produce that you don't normally find in Northern VA, but are staples in my kids' diet.

When I get my weekly delivery I am always faced with the dilemma of using as many of the fruits and veggies as possible in one scrumptious dish or slowly rationing them out throughout the week.  We recently received a box that contained eggplant and tomatoes and I knew I had to combine ingredients.  It was as if they were reading my mind, I had been craving Eggplant Parmesan for a couple of weeks and then as if by magic the necessary ingredients appeared.  I was so happy, but then came the hard part.  I had to decide between traditional - layers with sauce- and a more simple version.

 I decided to go simple.  Thick slices of eggplant, breaded and baked

Topped with sauteed cherry tomatoes, spinach and garlic

Finished with a sprinkle of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  Such yumminess!























Deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan

2 eggplant, medium sized, cut into 1/2" slices
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 cup Breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning (see below)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
1 bunch fresh spinach (or 1 10 oz package frozen)
16 oz Mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven 375.

Prepare three breading pans.  In first pan combine flour and 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning,  In the second pan add eggs and 2 tablespoons water, mix to combine.  In third breading pan combine Panko, regular breadcrumbs and remaining 2 tablespoons of seasoning mix.   Dip each slice of eggplant first in the flour, then in the egg mixture, finish with the breadcrumb mixture.  Place each coated slice on a platter.  Pour 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil a baking sheet with, place pan in oven 5 minutes to heat the oil.  Once all eggplant slices have been coated place on hot baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, flipping slices over half way through bake time.

While eggplant slices are baking.  Heat a saute pan, with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, over medium high heat.  Add chopped garlic and onion, cook for 5-7 minutes or until onions soften.  Add tomatoes cook for 10 minutes or until tomatoes begin to burst.  Add wine and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Stir in spinach and cook until soft.  Remove from heat.

Evenly divide mixture over baked eggplant slices top each slice with  mozzarella and Parmesan.  Place in oven for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and lightly golden.

Enjoy!!

Italian Seasoning Mix

3 Tablespoons dried basil
3 Tablespoons dried marjoram
3 Tablespoons dried rosemary
3  Tablespoons dried thyme
3  Tablespoons dried oregano


I medium bowl mix all ingredients until combined.  Place in an air tight container for storage.

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Veggie Crepes

Wow this month flew by!  I don't know how it happened, but it is already time for another Secret Recipe Club reveal.

This month I got to check out Kirsten's Kitchen.  Kirsten's blog is filled with a wonderful assortment of vegan recipes, you can find recipes for everything from breakfast to dinner!

I wanted to make the Vegan Sheefa she made for last month's SRC, they look absolutely delicious.  I don't know if I will make the vegan or meat version - either way I am guessing they are going to be delicious.  Since Kristen just made them for last month's reveal I decided to keep hunting around.  

After much hunting and pinning I finally settled on the veggie filled crepes.  It has been a long time since I made crepes and while we usually fill them with cheese or nutella I loved the idea of filling them with fresh crisp veggies.

Once I had decided on what to make I passed the actual work part on to Will and Mike.  The girls and I were out for the day, so the boys had dinner duty and they came up with a wonderfully tasty meal.

 They used regular milk instead of soy and added some leftover chicken to the filling selections.  Mike also made a wonderful Asian influenced dipping sauce, it was a wonderfully simple and tasty meal.

Crepes
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus additional oil for the pan

Combine all ingredients, whisk together until smooth.
Rub a small amount of oil on the bottom of  a crepe pan, or small saute pan.  Place over medium heat, let pan heat for about 3 minutes.  Add a small ladle of batter, rotate pan so entire bottom surface is covered with batter, should be almost see through.  Let cook for about 2-3 minutes then flip.  Repeat with remaining batter.