Sweet potato and red bean patties are pan-fried and topped with tangy barbecue sauce and juicy pineapple slabs to create these flavorful and satisfying vegan Hawaiian burgers.
What makes these burgers Hawaiian? They have pineapple. And barbecue sauce. Hey, I’ve never been to Hawaii, so I don’t know what their burgers are like! They probably don’t involve sweet potato, but they should, because it goes great with pineapple and barbecue sauce.
These are kind of summery, which makes sense with the whole Hawaiian thing. I meant to save this recipe for later. Closer to actual summer. It snowed over my house for a whole day last weekend, and that’s not very summery.
But it’s been a week. Between snow, taxes and technical problems, I just needed a little Friday pineapple. The snow is over (which, okay I didn’t mind so much, but I’m on a roll), my taxes are done(!), and well, I’m still having a little problem with the comment filter on the blog, but not a huge deal. I have a spam filter, you know, kind of like on your email inbox? I get dozens of comments daily trying to sell me authentic Air Jordans and search engine optimization services, so the filter sticks them in the spam box, which is usually very convenient. Just recently though, the spam filter decided to put every comment in the spam box, so I have to keep going in and fishing them out, which is a surprisingly time consuming task. So if you left a comment and don’t see it, I’m sorry! I’m working on it! I love your comments!
So. Hawaiian burgers. Pineapple and barbecue sauce! Feel free to save these for warmer weather, but I don’t recommend that. They’re great. (Can you go wrong with this combination? I think not.) I certainly didn’t mind eating these in the cold, early spring weather. I don’t think you will either.
Vegan Hawaiian Burgers
Ingredients
For the Hawaiian Burger Patties
- 1 1/2 cups diced sweet potato, about 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil, plus extra for grilling
- 1-14 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- pinch cayenne
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Pineapple Topping
- 4 pineapple rings, each about 1/4 inch thick
- oil, for grilling
For the Barbecue Sauce
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 garlic clove, minced
For Serving
- 4 burger buns
- lettuce
- tomato
- red onion
- vegan mayo
Instructions
Make the Hawaiian Burger Patties
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Preheat oven to 400°. Toss sweet potato with oil and arrange in a single layer on parchment-lined baking sheet or in a roasting pan. Place in oven and cook until tender, about 20 minutes, flipping about halfway through. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
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Place sweet potatoes, beans, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, soy sauce, cumin and cayenne into food processor bowl and pulse until finely chopped and well mixed. Season with salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Shape into 4 patties.
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place over medium heat. Working in batches if needed, place patties into skillet and cook until browned on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook 5 minutes more, until browned on opposite sides.
Make the Pineapple Topping
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Add a bit more oil to the skilllet and arrange pineappple rings in skillet, working in batches if they don't all fit. Cook about 3 minutes on each side, until tender.
Make the Barbecue Sauce
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While sweet potatoes roast, stir all barbecue sauce ingredients together in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a low simmer and allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture becomes thick and saucy, about 15 minutes.
Serve
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Stuff buns with Hawaiian burger patties. Top with barbecue sauce, pineapple rings and toppings of choice. Serve.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition information includes 1 tablespoon of vegan mayo.
These look and sound so tasty! I’m slowly saving up an arsenal of veggie burger recipes for the summer – I can’t wait to try this one!
Thanks Alexa! I hope you love them as much as I did!!
I made these last night and they were amazing! Great flavor and consistency for the burgers and the pineapple and sauce made them really tasty.
Awesome! Glad you liked them! Thanks Kat!
2 great recipes in 1! The BBQ sauce and the burgers themselves :)
All of the ingredients go together so well, great recipe(s)!
Thank you for your great article.
In fact many carnivores prefer vegan venues, as i found out on this article :
http://animal-welfare.org/worlds-best-burger/
Anybody likes vegan burgers ?
3 for 3. Third night in a row making 1 of your recipes. Hard to decide our favorite. These were delicious tomorrow night mushroom barley soup!
So happy to hear it! I hope you enjoy the mushroom soup too! It’s one of my recent favorites. :)
For any other newbies like myself… If they’re to mushy to form (like mine were) just add a little more breadcrumbs and they’re amazing! Even my son ate it!
Yay!! Glad you enjoyed them and thank you for the tip!
This was our Memorial Day dinner! These are the best veggie burgers! They held together beautiful, cooking them in our new(is) cast iron grill pan—love that thing! Healthy ingredients. And so delicious. The grilled pineapple didn’t hurt, either! Served it with your best baked beans and a side of snow peas with orange sauce. I won’t be traveling to Hawaii, but who says I can’t do Hawaiian burgers at home? Thanks so much.
Isn’t cast iron the best?? That sounds like a delicious meal! I’m so glad you enjoyed the burgers. Thanks Ellen!!
To save time, could use canned sweet potatoes? Thank you !
I don’t see why not!
I couldn’t get pineapple, but I made them otherwise according to the recipe, and they were phenomenal. 100% my favorite vegan burger recipe–better than anything I’ve eaten at a restaurant, and a world above the frozen kind you buy at the super market.