Salt-Baked Sweet Potatoes Give A New Meaning To Veggie Burgers

Creating veggie burgers with salt-baked sweet potatoes is a delicious crowd-pleaser that's easy to prepare and perfect for every occasion from family barbecues to busy midweek meals. Made with wholesome elements, they're also full of fiber and very nutritious. The other part of the magic is that the salt helps to draw out just the right amount of moisture from the sweet potatoes making the taste of your veggie burger really shine. 

As James A. Beard Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky notes in his book, "Salt: A World History," adding sodium in this way is an ancient technique that works wonders on dishes. "Salt is a rock," he reminds us, "and one with good heat absorption properties — which allows it to thoroughly but gently cook the food within the salt crust while trapping moisture so that it doesn't escape into the oven." Thankfully, you can add this classic cooking technique to your veggie burger repertoire with just a few steps.

With your cooking gloves on, place the washed and scrubbed sweet potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Slice the end off a bulb of garlic and place it open-side up in the pan. Add fresh dill around the garlic. Now rub each sweet potato with two teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle each with one tablespoon of coarse salt. Roast until they are completely soft to a skewer, about 45 minutes to one hour. Scoop and shape into round patties, press flat, and slowly fry these with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron pan. You can also bind them with black beans or a fresh mushroom mixture.

Next, spread a dollop of garlic butter on your bread buns or even sour cream. Make sure to also be generous with the toppings and try adding items like avocado, mayo, red onion, chives, thinly sliced apples, or even pickles. Of any veggie burger recipe you find in your searches, this version with salt-baked potatoes as your patty is sure to become a favorite.