Falafel burger with spicy sweet potato fries and avocado hummus

I absolutely LOVE burgers and I love all kinds of burgers – haha specially the greasy, cheesy, meaty kind with fries and mayo, but since I try to eat healthy I only rarely have those. Yesterday I was craving burgers so badly, so in an attempt to keep my cravings in check I decided to make a healthier version of burgers and fries and it turned out so good that I thought I would share it with you guys – I hope you’ll like it! 

 

Falafel burger patties

To make the burger patties I actually used the falafel recipe I posted a while back – find it here – it yields 4 patties.

Spicy sweet potato fries

Find the recipe here

Avocado hummus

1/ 2 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I used the other half for the falafel patties)

1 avocado

1 tblsp chopped red onion

1tblsp chopped red bell pepper

Juice from 1/ 2 a lemon

Garlic powder or fresh garlic (use as much or little as you like)

Salt and pepper to taste

A little water to blend, add a tablespoon at a time to make sure it doesn’t get too thin

The hummus was inspired by the lovely Daniella from Swedish Fitness Kitchen - find her recipe here!

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients – except the red bell pepper and red onion - in your blender or food processor and pulse until smooth
2. Add the red onion and bell pepper and give it a quick blend, but make sure to leave some texture
3. And you’re done, enjoy!

I used a store bought whole wheat bun (I’m not very fond of baking, but I’ve found some great recipes, so I’ll give it a try soon) and topped it with the hummus, some mixed salad, red onion, cucumber, the falafel patties, and spicy salsa.

Spicy sweet potato fries

Ingredients – 2 servings:

4 small/medium sweet potatoes

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon paprika

1/2 tablespoon chilli powder

Half a teaspoon ground cumin

Sea salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch - optional

Directions:

Let me start by saying that getting sweet potato fries to be all nice and crispy can be somewhat of a challenge, but I have two tips for you that should do the trick.

• The first thing you can do is to let the potatoes soak in a bowl of cold water for an hour or two after you have cut them. This should remove some of the starch from the potatoes and help them get crispy in the oven. After soaking, quickly rinse with water and dry them with a towel. 
•  If you do not have the time to soak the potatoes you can use another tip that I haven’t actually tried myself yet, but it should work very well. All you need is a tablespoon of cornstarch to lightly coat your sweet potatoes in – I will explain how in step 5.
• You can also use both the tips to make sure your fries will get crispy – sweet potatoes are a bit tricky!

1. Now, start with pre-heating your oven to 220 degrees c / 430 degrees f
2. Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into desired size, the thicker you make them the longer they need to bake
3. Get a plastic bag – skip this step if you do not wish to use the cornstarch tip - and add about 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, you only want the fries to be lightly coated or else they will taste of cornstarch so be careful. Add the potato fries to the bag and shake it vigorously to make sure all the potatoes are coated with the cornstarch.
4. Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil (I usually use 1 tablespoon olive oil, but pretty much any oil should do) and shake the bag again
5. Add all the spices to the bag and shake some more until the fries are coated
6. Take a baking tray and cover it with baking paper, place the fries on the tray and make sure that they are well separated - there needs to be some space between the fries allowing them to bake properly
7. Bake the fries for about 20-35 minutes depending on the thickness of your fries – make sure to flip them over a couple of times allowing them to bake on all sides
8. Enjoy!