Weekend lunching

Standard

Cooking is not really my thing, especially when hanging out on my own at home. But I become experimental and slightly ambitious when feeding others.

This weekend, it was sweet potato-millet-sweet corn-black bean burgers (with some avocado-tomato cream sauce), mixed potato wedges and chicken cauliflower chili.

Everything turned out really well even if I had no confidence in these items.

Sweet potato-black bean burgers
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 cup dry millet
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup corn
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 200°C. Bake the sweet potato for 50-60 minutes (until soft). While the sweet potato bakes, cook the millet until soft. Bring 1 cup of water to boil, stir in the half-cup of millet, reduce heat on the stove to low, let millet simmer with lid on the pan (this took maybe 15-20 minutes).

When sweet potato is cooled, put it in food processor or blender with the oats, one cup of black beans and all the spices along with a tablespoon of oil (I had to add a bit extra oil because this was very dry). Mix until smooth.

In another bowl, mix the sweet potato mixture with remaining whole beans, corn and cooked millet.

Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, place patties or large balls of the mixture in the pan and flatten into burger-shaped patties using a spatula. Brown each side.

While burgers are in the pan, toast buns and also make the avocado sauce.

Avocado sauce
1 ripe avocado
3 ounces plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Roma tomato, diced

Mash avocado with a fork. Mix in the Greek yogurt, lime juice, and salt. Stir in the tomatoes, and set aside for serving.

Serve burger on toasted bun with fresh avocado cream sauce. I also melted some cheddar on the buns while toasting them.

Mixed potato wedges

Scrub two or three regular potatoes and two medium sweet potatoes and slice into wedges. Toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, paprika and a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in a 200C oven for about 40 minutes (turning the potatoes over once at about 20 minutes in).

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