As you will already know, if you’re a frequent reader of my little blog, I’m a huge fan of quinoa. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, a quick snack: quinoa can be everything. But before now I’d never really thought about mixing it with something else delicious to become a burger, until a conversation with a lovely Panamanian fan, Olgamaria, got me thinking about how great mashed sweet potato would work as a binder in a quinoa patty.

I had also seen in some recipes that it was possible to use gluten-free oats instead of the usual breadcrumbs, which I liked the idea of a lot. My potential sweet potato and quinoa patties needed something to stabilise the mixture, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Guess what? It worked perfectly.

These stay together beautifully when you cook them, save really well and would fill up even the most hungry hockey-playing 6 foot 4 teenager. Just be sure to make sure you buy gluten-free oats; oats are naturally gluten-free, but are subject to cross contamination by wheat during the processing. Let’s stay GF!

You’ll need:
(Makes 8 large burgers; feeds 4 hungry ones)
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 cups cooked yellow split peas*
1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potato
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup zucchini (courgette), diced
1/2 cup spinach, chopped roughly
1 1/2 cups steel cut oats (make sure they’re gluten-free)
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of coriander
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon tomato puree
black pepper
a little oil

*When you cook the yellow split peas, allow them to cook themselves down into a puree, with some still in tact

Method:
In a pan, fry the onion, zucchini and garlic in a little oil, until it’s browning, then remove from the heat
Mix together the quinoa, mashed sweet potato, yellow split peas, oats, cumin, coriander, hot sauce, turmeric, tomato puree and black pepper in a bowl
Add in the onions, zucchini and garlic
Mix well then place into the fridge for anywhere from 30 minutes
Shape into 8 large patties, and fridge again for 10 minutes
Heat a little oil in a frying pan, and fry each patty on one side for 4-5 minutes, then flip
Serve on a bed of a basic salad; shredded lettuce, tomato and capers in balsamic vinegar works really well

This is a veritable powerhouse recipe in terms of nutrition; oats are full of energy, yellow split peas are full of protein, sweet potato has beta carotine, iron and calcium and quinoa is full of rainbows and fairies and unicorns and utter, utter joy. The spices will keep your immune system ticking over well and the fact that these are real delicious will send you almost over the edge.

This is not a quick recipe when you have to make the quinoa, potatoes and split peas, so it’s better to make them all in advance, or to make a huge batch of these burgers and freeze them. So tasty; so awesome.