Hamburger & Sweet Potato
No bun. No bread of any kind. Roasted sweet potato rounds, golden from twenty minutes in a hot oven, hold the burger together instead.
The patty gets its structure from egg, yellow mustard, and a pinch of nutmeg, kneaded hard for a full minute so it holds without breadcrumbs. Stack the rounds with tomato, pickles, red onion, and arugula, and the whole thing comes together at 506 calories and 29g of protein in 25 minutes.
No bun. No bread of any kind. Roasted sweet potato rounds, golden from twenty minutes in a hot oven, hold the burger together instead.
The patty gets its structure from egg, yellow mustard, and a pinch of nutmeg, kneaded hard for a full minute so it holds without breadcrumbs. Stack the rounds with tomato, pickles, red onion, and arugula, and the whole thing comes together at 506 calories and 29g of protein in 25 minutes.
Ingredients
- sweet potato 7 ounces
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- tomato 1
- pickles 2
- red onion 0.25
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- egg 1
- yellow mustard 0.5 teaspoon
- nutmeg 1 pinch
- arugula 1 handful
Method
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Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C).
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Slice the sweet potato into 1/4 inch thick slices. Brush the sweet potato slices with half of the oil and sprinkle with salt to taste. Roast the sweet potato in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and cooked.
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Slice the tomato and pickle into thin slices and the red onion into very thin rings.
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In a bowl, mix the ground beef with the egg, mustard and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper and knead vigorously for 1 minute. Shape it into one large or two small burgers.
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Cook the burger in a frying pan with the remaining oil for 10 minutes until done.
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Place the sweet potato slices first with a slice of tomato, then with the burger and then another slice of tomato. Top with pickle, red onion and arugula to taste.
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Make a fresh salad with the remaining tomato, red onion and arugula. Season the salad with salt and pepper.
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Serve the burger with the salad and the remaining sweet potato.
Brush the olive oil on every sweet potato slice before roasting. Not just for crispness. Research found that adding cooking oil to sweet potato increased the beta-carotene your body can access by 10 to 20 times compared to cooking without fat. The oven heat breaks down the cell walls, and the oil dissolves the pigment into a form your body can actually use.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Why use sweet potato slices instead of a regular bun?
The swap trades refined flour for a whole food. Sweet potato rounds bring 8g of fiber to the plate and give the burger a slightly sweet, roasted base that pairs well with the peppery arugula and tangy pickles.
Can I use regular ground beef instead of 96% lean?
You can, but the macros shift. Regular 80/20 ground beef has roughly three times more fat per serving than 96% lean. With 84 grams of beef in this recipe, switching to 80/20 adds about 10 grams of fat and close to 100 extra calories. The patty will be juicier, though. The 96% lean gets its moisture from the egg and mustard instead.
Does olive oil lose its benefits when roasted at 200°C?
Standard cooking temperatures, including oven roasting at 200°C, do not destroy the compounds that make olive oil interesting. Research found that phenolic compounds in olive oil survive typical cooking conditions. The oil in this recipe is brushed on thin slices and roasted for 20 minutes, well within the range where olive oil retains its properties.
Read the full evidence review
