How was your weekend? We finally set up our living room with our new rug, plus I just ordered a custom designed ottoman, which I’m really quite excited about. We picked a dark blue velvet color and can’t wait to see it when it arrives in a few weeks. Other new things? A black custom french-looking desk and a small side table that’s going to be painted a bronze gold. Obsessed is an understatement.
Hmmm what else? Chicago’s been insane lately. We’ve had the Chicago marathon, the Cubs in the playoffs and the Bears actually won TWO games. Thus, I’ve been eating a little too much pizza and bar food lately. What I’m really craving now is a seriously good veggie burger with a huge side salad.
Veggie burgers are wonderful because like regular burgers, you can get creative with the ingredients and toppings. I’ve made a few favorite versions but this one is cozy, seasonal and flavored with curry and cumin. The vibrant flavors bring out the sweetness of the sweet potato and the savory goodness of the chickpeas. Love, love.
The nutrition shines in this recipe too! Nearly 6g of fiber and over 7g of protein for under 200 calories. It’s a real, wholesome veggie burger you can truly feel good about eating. And bonus! These are totally freezer friendly. Just pop the uncooked patties in a freezer-safe container! Once ready to cook, simply thaw the burgers out and cook them up as you normally would.
Make your own oat flour for these wild rice burgers
Good news, you can easily make your own oat flour right at home to use in these curry-spiced wild rice burgers. Check out my tutorial with all of my best tips & tricks. So easy!
How to serve these burgers
I’ve been topping mine with bold arugula, creamy avocado and enjoying with homemade sweet potato fries. Highly recommend you do the same!
I hope you absolutely adore these burgers. If you make them, please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or by taking a photo, uploading it to Instagram and tagging #ambitiouskitchen.
Happy #MeatlessMonday!
If you’re looking for more veggie burger recipes, here are some of my other favorites:
New Mexican Green Chile Black Bean Burgers
Chickpea, Quinoa & Sweet Potato Burgers
Jalapeno Chickpea Lentil Burgers with Mango Avocado Pico
Garlic + Basil Chickpea Veggie Burgers with Creamy Avocado Pesto
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Vegan Curry-Spiced Sweet Potato & Wild Rice Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice blend
- 1 - 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- freshly ground salt and pepper to taste
- 1/3-1/2 cup breadcrumbs OR oat flour
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil, for cooking
- Optional: 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- For topping: avocado, arugula, red onion
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Use a fork to poke sweet potato several times. Place sweet potato on a small pan lined with foil and bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until fork tender.
- While sweet potato is cooking, cook the wild rice by adding 1 cup water and wild rice to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until tender.
- Add cooked sweet potato (not the skin) and chickpeas to a large bowl; mash with a fork or potato masher. (Alternatively you can use a food processor and pulse them until somewhat, but not completely smooth.)
- Next stir in cooked wild rice, curry powder, cumin and garlic powder. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then stir in breadcrumbs (or oat flour), cranberries and pecans, if using. The pecans add a lovely flavor, but aren't necessary.
- Shape mixture into six patties. It's easier to shape and cook the patties when they are cold, so if you'd like you can keep the mixture in the fridge until cold, then form patties (I recommend doing it this way!).
- Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a large pan. Once oil is hot, add patties and cook for about 7-9 minutes, then VERY carefully flip. Cook for an additional 7-9 minutes on the other side, adding more oil to the pan if necessary. Serve on their own or in a bun! I love mine with avocado & arugula. Makes 6 burgers.
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen
Photography by: Sarah Fennel // Broma Bakery
Followed recipe exactly, including the breadcrumbs, pecans, and cranberries. Absolutely delicious! We also had leftovers from your jalapeño artichoke dip and added just a tiny bit as our dressing, which just took it over the top.
SO perfect, Em! I am so glad you gave these a try and they are a hit 🙂
Could these be baked instead of fried?
Hi! I haven’t actually tried that for this recipe but I assume so!
At what point would you freeze these burgers? Before or after baking them?
Either will work! If you freeze them before baking, simply let them thaw in the refrigerator and cook them as you normally would.
These were delicious! Mine held shape very well even though I didn’t refrigerate them, and I cooked them much less (abt 2 mins per side), but overall an amazing recipe!
Perfect! So happy to hear that 🙂
Made these burgers, really loved them, made my oat flour from oats for the first time, worked really well . Very tasty and easy to make, only two of us, so froze the rest , works great from freezer to plate too.
Thank you so much and we are looking forward to trying some more if your recipes.
Perfect! Such a great dinner (and love the idea of freezing for later!)
At which point do you freeze the burgers?
You can freeze them after shaping them “raw” or once they’re cooked 🙂 if you freeze them raw simply thaw them in the fridge and cook as directed!
I would love to make these, they sound delicious, but can I use any type of rice as I do not have wild rice
Sure, you can try brown rice!
Thank you, will do, let you know how I get on.
Great recipe, it was pretty good. Any suggestions to thicken the patties? Mine kept breaking apart while frying.
Sorry to hear that! you can try adding some panko breadcrumbs or a flax egg 🙂
how much sodium does this recipe contain?
I didn’t calculate sodium content for this recipe, but feel free to add the ingredients to an online calculator for a quick check!
A really flavorful burger! My issues were all “self-inflicted”. I thought that my sweet potato was ginormous so I went a little heavy on the oat flour. The sweet potatoto rice ratio was a little high, but again, that was my issue for the XXL tuber (& heavy flour). The flavors were great though. It reminded me of the Trader Joes Masala Burgers, but so much better! We topped our with butter lettuce and cilantro and a little smear of tamarind chutney 🙂
Those sweet potatoes can be tricky when they’re huge! Glad you loved this one regardless 🙂 And tamarind chutney on top sounds AMAZING!
Hi Monique!
This is Fiesta Tropicalé and we craft the finest coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut flakes in town.
We would like to feature this recipe on our social media accounts along with the images attached. We would like to know your thoughts on this and shall await your kind response.
Best,
Fiesta Tropicalé team
These are absolutely fantastic! Best veggie burger I’ve ever made, Thank you! I used GF bread and ground it up for my bread crumbs.
Thank you!
Hi,
Is there a sub for the bread crumbs and oat flour?
I’ve made these before and they are absolutely fantastic. My first try, I used corn (1 cup) in sub for the chickpeas, and used walnuts. I also put some oats in the grinder for the flour. It works really well. It was surprising to have a curry-flavoured patty, but it’s absolutely delish. My second time, I followed the recipe to the tee with some walnuts. Yum yum. This is a staple to my meal-prepping as my weeks get very busy!
PS I also just try to ‘nuke’ the sweet potatoes in the microwave to make it faster.
These were delicious! Just the right bout of flavor! And…I even ate my leftovers cold the next day over a salad and they were just as yummy! Your recipes are always easy, delicious, accessible and inspiring!!!! Thank you!
These burgers sound amazing! I’m in the same boat and am craving veggies like none other.
Oooh the new furniture for your living room sounds great! I definitely need to step up the decor in my apartment, it’s very IKEA / Target-esque 😉
curry, cumin, wild rice?! I’m IN! These look delicious, Monique!
That burger is calling out to me <3_<3 ! I have to gobble it all up!
I love veggie burgers! This one looks great!
I am no vegan, but I would be lying if I said these burgers don’t look delicious. I will definitely be giving these a try. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Your new place sounds like it’s going to be amazing! I hope you’ll give us a tour when you’re all finished. 🙂
And these veggie burgers look ridiculous. Bring on the sweet potatoes!
This burger sounds really delicious! I love the idea of adding wild rice to a veggie burger!
Oh my goodness, these look fantastic! I can’t wait to see your new living space – getting new furniture is definitely so much fun! My hubby and I recently got a custom swivel chair and it pretty much rocks my world lol! Surprising as it is, my hubby loves veggie burgers, so I’m definitely going to give these a try asap!
Yummers!!! Love a good veggies burger recipe.
These look AMAZING. So thick and yummy
These look great! I noticed in the notes you mentioned optional pecans but I didn’t see those in the ingredient listing. How many pecans and do you suggested toasted or raw? Thank you!
Hi Megan! The recipe indicates 1/4 cup. Toasted pecans would be delicious, but raw also work great. 🙂
Oops – sorry I missed that when I originally read it! These are for dinner tonight! I have it all made, just chilling in the fridge now! Thanks!
Just wanted to follow up to say these were fantastic! Great mix of flavor and textures. My family loved them and my 5 year-old said they were definitely a “do again”! Thanks for the recipe! This is the first I’ve made from your site, but I’ll have to go back and try more now! Thanks again.
I love having nice hearty veggie burger once in awhile! I love the flavor combo you have ni this recipe!
Love veggie burgers especially when topped with avocado. It’s actually the ONLY way to eat them, right?
100%!