a delicious sweet potato, tofu burger!

i still owe you guys a vegan macaroni and cheese/vegan soul food post but that entry is going to be soooo intense so for now i must placate you with this burger that i made in the days following the vegan soulfood extravaganza. i had a giant (the biggest i've ever seen) sweet potato sitting around because i had planned to make a sweet potato casserole with our vegan soulfood but it never happened. the result was this.



to make 2-3 burgers you will need:

one reasonably sized sweet potato. don't get a huge one like me unless you want to be eating sweet potato for a week straight. sliced into 1-2 inch cubes

1/3 container of firm tofu, press the water out with some paper towels and then crumble with your hands

one carrot. grated using a cheese grater thing or minced with a knife.

1-2 stalks of celery. chopped into small pieces. i cut mine in half long ways and then chop it into smaller pieces if its a big one.

1 medium onion. chopped.

a handful of cashews. i dropped them into a blender and so they were all crushed and chopped up into a rough kind of powder.

your choice of herbs and spices. i used salt, pepper, a little sage, a little curry powder, and nutritional yeast. is that a spice? i don't really know wtf it is but i like the way it tastes and vegans are into it.

a little fresh parsley. finely chopped.

buns or bread of your choice.

cheese of some kind if you wanna. condiments are fun. use whatever kind you want. we put mustard, vegenaise and pickles on ours. they were delightful.

BEHOLD! THE WORLD'S LARGEST SWEET POTATO!

i'm not foolin' around guys. that's a ten inch chef knife sitting adjacent to that beast of a sweet potato. it was huge. i used about 1/4 - 1/3 of it.

chopped it up like thissss

when you are finished chopping you want to drop those guys into a pot of rapidly boiling, salted water.

while those are cooking you are going to want to start cooking your mirepoix. this is the part of the blog where i teach you a fancy word.

see this picture..


carrot, onion, and celery-- often referred to as "aromatics" are the flavor base for tons of different stuff.. soups, stews, stocks and other things. in this case they are going to flavor your burger and create nice textures as well. put them into a saute pan while your sweet potato is cooking in the boiling water and cook them until they are softened.



in my case i am cooking them in a crappy non-stick wok--- probably because i was too lazy to wash my saute pan. that's ok though.

when your potatoes are fork soft and your mirepoix (remember that the onion, celery, carrot mixture) is cooked down combine those items in a large mixing bowl with your tofu and cashews and mash everything together with a wooden spoon or a manual potato masher.


season with your choice of herbs and spices + parsley which tastes good and makes everything pretty. everyone should have fresh parsley on hand. you can toss it on top of anything and make it look like you did a really good job of cooking.

taste the mixture as you go to see what kind of flavor you are coming up with. tasting while you cook is really important.


give everything a good stir with a fork to make sure that your ingredients are distributed evenly and form into patties using your hands. i like to make a big ball and then squish it down to achieve a nice even patty.

i cooked my burgers in the same pan that i used to cook my mirepoix. add a little oil to the pan, put the heat on medium-high and let them cook for a couple of minutes on each side until they are golden.


remove from pan and serve them however you like. ours went like this. potato buns, pickles, vegenaise, mustard and a sprinkle of daiya cheese.


these are really inexpensive to make and more delicious and healthy than a gardenburger. ta-da!

if you decide to make this meal take some pictures and show me! let me know what you think. =D

and if you love me and you want to buy me something for my kitchen visit mywish list! my chef knife is dull. need sharpeners!