Baked Chickpea Sweet Potato Burgers
With a base of roasted sweet potato, chickpeas, and rice, these seasonal sweet potato burgers are just right for autumn weather. They’re baked, not fried, so they need less hands-on time and you can prep any sides or toppings while the burgers are in the oven. Baking makes for a more solid, easy to handle burger, and it means less time in front of the stove for you.
These are especially easy, because you don’t need a food processor – an immersion blender or even a potato masher will do the trick. The sweet potato has to be roasted ahead of time, but that can be done days in advance, and everything else comes together very quickly indeed. Dry spices and coriander (cilantro) add a slight South Asian-inspired taste.
Like all veggie burgers, texture is queen and these vegan burgers don’t skimp on it. Breadcrumbs, rice, and the sweet potato all add binding power to the patties so that they don’t crumble. The texture is solid but not dry, and some chickpeas are left whole for extra textural interest.
I first shared this recipe in 2019. It’s been updated with improvements to the recipe instructions and a retested and improved recipe, new photos, including step-by-step photos, and more helpful information.
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Ingredients You’ll Need and Why
To make the prep faster here, it helps to already have roasted sweet potato and cooked rice on hand. If not, you’re looking at about half an hour of additional cooking time before starting the recipe – and both the rice and sweet potato should be cooled before mixing. These are my notes from recipe testing. You can find the full recipe card with complete measurements and instructions below.
- Chickpeas: this is cooked or canned, drained and rinsed well. You can sub another bean like white beans, but chickpeas have a bit more texture, so the burgers will be a bit softer if using another bean.
- Sweet potato: while this does need to be cooked ahead of time, roasted sweet potatoes will keep for several days and are good to have on hand. I’m sure roasted winter squash could be substituted but I haven’t tested it (since these are sweet potato burgers).
- Rice: for the best holding power, use day-old short grain rice. Any leftover rice is fine but that will give the best texture.
- Breadcrumbs: any will do. I always make my own bread crumbs from old bread, usually spelt bread, and that works great. I’m sure a gluten-free breadcrumb alternative would be fine.
- Onion: yellow, white, or red, even shallots, depending on what you have on hand.
- Herbs: my preference is for fresh coriander (cilantro) for these burgers, which is a good match with the sweet potato and spices. Parsley is an excellent substitution.
- Spices:
- Lemon: some acidity is your friend when it comes to veggie burgers. If you don’t have lemons, lime juice is a good substitution, or even a splash of apple cider vinegar.
- Oil: use your preferred cooking oil. I always use olive oil but it doesn’t really matter.
- Flour: chickpea, rye, or another whole grain flour also helps to bind the burgers.
How to Make Sweet Potato Burgers
These photos are here to show you what the texture of the burger mixture should look like, and how the burgers should look before and after baking. Refer to these if it’s your first time making the recipe.
Step 1: start by roasting the sweet potato if you haven’t already (I often roast several to keep refrigerated for quick meals). Sauté the onion and garlic in oil until soft, about eight minutes. Add the spices to toast. Transfer to a mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients and mix well to combine.
Step 2: take a third of the mixture from the bowl and blend until smooth in a food processor. Alternatively, use an immersion blender for this step, blending until the mixture easily sticks together and the texture is the same as pictured. A potato masher and some elbow grease works too.
Step 3: form eight patties and place onto a lined and greased baking sheet. The patties should be fairly thin, at most 2cm (¾ inch). Too thick and they won’t bake through in the centre.
Step 4: bake for about 30 minutes, carefully flipping with a spatula after 15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before serving with any desired toppings.
Expert Tips
- Use day old rice: first, I do prefer short-grain brown rice for burgers, as it’s a bit stickier than long grain. Day old rice has a different starch structure and the burgers will hold together more effectively than with freshly cooked rice.
- Roast the sweet potato: steaming it will add too much water to the mixture and cause softer burgers. Roasting also gives a better flavour, so it is all-around preferable.
- Blend more if needed: if the burger mixture isn’t holding together when you try to form patties, it probably needs to be blended more (or you’ve changed something vital!) so mash or blend until it does. Since this is a vegan recipe with no eggs or cheese, it’s a very important step.
More Veggie Burger Recipes
Sweet Potato Burgers
Description
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons cumin seed or 1 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium roasted sweet potato ~400 grams before roasting, or 270 grams roasted sweet potato
- 400 grams (2 ¼ cups) cooked or canned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 100 grams (⅔ cup) cooked short-grain rice brown or white, preferably day-old
- 100 grams (⅔ cup) breadcrumbs use gluten-free if needed
- 2 tablespoons chickpea flour or rye or whole wheat
- 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro) or parsley chopped
- Juice of ½ a lemon ~2 tablespoons
- 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a pan over low-medium heat. Once hot, add the onion and cook for eight minutes, until translucent. If it's browning too much, reduce the heat. Add the onion and cook for another couple of minutes.1 tablespoon oil, 1 medium onion, 2 cloves garlic
- Stir in the cumin, coriander, and pepper, and cook for another 30 seconds.2 teaspoons cumin seed, ½ teaspoon ground coriander, ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Place the sweet potato into a large mixing bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Add the onion mixture, chickpeas, rise, breadcrumbs, flour, coriander (cilantro), lemon juice, and salt.1 medium roasted sweet potato, 400 grams (2 ¼ cups) cooked or canned chickpeas, 100 grams (⅔ cup) cooked short-grain rice, 100 grams (⅔ cup) breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons chickpea flour, 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro) or parsley, Juice of ½ a lemon, 1 teaspoon sea salt
- Remove one-third of the mixture and blend in a food processor until smooth. Alternatively, use an immersion blender or potato masher. See step-by-step photos above for a reference.
- Return the blended mixture back to the bowl and use a wooden spoon or spatula and mix very well to combine.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease the paper with some additional oil.
- Form the mixture into eight burgers, about 1.5cm (¾ in.) thick, and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, carefully flipping the burgers after 15 minutes and returning to the oven.
- Cool for five minutes on the baking sheet before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
Made a variant of these featuring grated carrots and a lil bit of white beans because I had no chickpeas and not enough sweet potato, and it turned out very tasty! I did add cinnamon and put in a bit too much haha, but otherwise with cumin, some peppers and various nuts sautéed with the garlic and onion it was a really good combination. They held up their shape pretty well too (I did pulse the mixture a few times), anyway thank you for the inspiration!!
I made these today for my 11 month old toddler and myself. They are delicious!