These purple rice burgers with garlic aioli are the best veggie burgers! Great for meatless Mondays & made with black beans & sweet potatoes!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by USA Rice & The Feedfeed. As always, all opinions are my own.
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Looking for the BEST and EASIEST veggie burger recipe? Look no further. My purple rice burgers with garlic aioli are super simple to make, taste amazing, and are even freezer friendly!
I’ve been trying to incorporate more meatless meals into mine and my fiance’s weekly dinners. It can be a challenge creating a filling and meatless recipe that we both enjoy. We are both big burger fans so I wanted to come up with a new meatless recipe that would be exciting, but also packed with nutritious ingredients.
These veggie burgers are made with smoky spices, a hint of brown sugar, sweet potatoes, black beans, garlic, onions, and U.S.-grown purple rice. Yep, you read that right! Purple rice.
There are more than 120,000 varieties of rice in the world and they are categorized by degree of milling, kernel size, starch content, and flavor. Purple or Black rice is typically grown in California. It contains the antioxidant, anthocyanin, which is the same antioxidant that is found in berries, grapes, red wine, and cabbage.
Cooked purple rice grains are slightly chewy with a subtle sweet spiciness- making it the perfect addition to my black bean veggie burgers. Aside from the great taste and texture this whole grain rice provides, when paired with black beans, it creates a high quality plant based protein dish containing eight essential amino acids.
Another thing I love about this recipe, is the fact that you can control the salt content in these burgers. Many store bought veggie burgers are packed with salt. These can be made with or without salt and will taste great either way! If you like the convenience of the store bought veggie burgers, make a large batch of these and freeze them in a freezer bag. They reheat great in the microwave.
Purple Rice Burger with Garlic Aioli Recipe
Purple Rice Burger with Garlic Aioli
Ingredients
Burgers:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
- 1 cup cooked purple rice
- 1 15 ounce can low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
- ½ small red onion diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 whole wheat hamburger buns
- Toppings: lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, spinach, cheese, etc.
Garlic Aioli:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Slice the sweet potatoes down the middle lengthwise. Place the sweet potatoes, cut side down, on baking sheet. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender and easy to squeeze. Let cool. Set aside baking sheet for burgers (no need to remove the parchment). Keep oven on.
- Make the garlic aioli: combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire and salt in a small jar. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This will help the aioli thicken and the flavors meld.
- Once the sweet potatoes have cooled, remove and discard skin. In a large mixing bowl, using a potato masher, combine the sweet potatoes, purple rice, black beans, red onion, garlic, smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder, brown sugar and salt. Sprinkle the oats over the mixture and mix well with a large spoon. The burger mixture should hold together when formed into patties.
- Use a ½ cup measuring cup to portion out 8 burgers and form into patties. Brush both sides of patties with olive oil and place on lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. Serve on buns with your favorite toppings and garlic aioli.
