It’s Meatless Monday time! I’ve been trying to stick to mostly Vegan fare but sometimes you see a great recipe and decide this is what you crave this week. I found a basic recipe for these black eyed pea sweet potato sliders, tweeked them slightly and immediately wrote up my shopping list. First of all, I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid cheese this month and these sliders are dairy free. Secondly, these are sliders! How cute and trendy are sliders right now?
I had no problem finding anything on my shopping list except those slider buns. Pepperidge Farm makes a mass produced version of slider buns that we found in our local Publix. However, they contain dairy- milk to be specific. I decided to keep looking but after we looked at two other smaller specialty grocers as well as a Fresh Market, I found myself back at that original Publix buying those Pepperidge Farm buns. Therefore, I can’t claim this recipe as Vegan. Then again, as Vegetarian-friendly as people in Orlando claims it to be, I often find it difficult to find certain Vegan ingredients even in Whole Foods. A reader told me that Trader Joe’s does make Vegan slider buns so should Orlando ever became hip enough, maybe we will get a Trader Joe’s of our own and I can shop there. **(10/16/2015 update: Since I wrote this post we have a Trader Joe’s in Orlando now and they do indeed sell Vegan Slider Buns)**
Anyway, enough of my rant. The burgers were super easy to make. The time consuming part was baking the potatoes and letting them cool. Other than that, they were rather quick.
I love the idea of using black-eyed peas instead of black beans or chickpeas. Black-eyed peas are rather unusual and unexpected in a veggie burger recipe.
- 1 16 oz bag frozen black eyed peas
- 2 medium to large size sweet potatoes
- 2 tbsp tahini paste
- 1 tbsp virgin olive oil
- pinch of salt
- pinch of pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 12-count pkg of slider buns
- spicy dijon mustard
- 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 1-2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup sprouts, alfalfa, kale, sunflower, etc.
- Preheat oven to 450°. Wash and scrub sweet potatoes, dry with a paper towel and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Poke a few holes into the potato with a fork, then bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- While the potatoes are baking, cook the black eyed peas according to package directions, usually in a microwave to steam them.
- Once the potatoes have cooled, reduce the heat in the oven to 350°. Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh into a medium sized bowl. Add the black eyed peas and the remaining ingredients.
- Using a potato masher, mash the ingredients until well mixed but leave slightly chunky. Scoop some mixture the size of a golf ball and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Mash slightly downward to form more of a burger, but do not smush them flat. Repeat with the remaining mixture, allowing some space between the patties to allow for cooking.
- Bake in the oven for about 18 minutes, until the patties are formed and sightly browned.
- While the oven is still hot, slightly toast the slider buns.
- Assemble the burgers with the dijon mustard, red onion, tomato and kale sprouts. Serve 3 sliders per person.
I used nutritional yeast as an ingredient to give the burgers a slight cheese flavor. I did not use any real cheese in the recipe. I also only recommended using dijon mustard as a condiment. It’s just more simple and allows the black eyed pea and sweet potato flavor shine through. However, if you can’t have a burger without a dose of ketchup then go for it.
It is important to not flatten these out before baking like you may do to a regular beef patty. Keep them in a semi ball and let them bake themselves out.  Smushing them too flat will dry them out and they will be hockey pucks, not moist tasty veggie burgers.
I am definitely trying this recipe – it sounds really good 🙂