Southwestern Burgers with Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries & Chili Aioli

The high humidity continues in Philadelphia so I decided to just give in and have a summery meal. I made this inside on a grill pan, but the burger can be made on an outdoor grill just as easily. I will focus more on making the fries, because the burger is mostly stacking ingredients.
Ingredients:
Burger:
  4 hamburger patties
  4 slices of pepper jack cheese
  1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced
  1 avocado
  4 hamburger buns
Sweet Potato Fries:
  4 larger sized sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
  Salt
  1/2 stick unsalted butter
  2 teaspoons chipotle powder
Chili Aioli:
  1/3 cup mayo
  1 tablespoon chili sauce (like Sriracha)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into wedges. I honestly don’t think I succeeded in actually getting “wedges” but oh well. Place on a baking sheet lined with tin foil and sprinkle with salt.
Melt the butter, either on a stovetop or in the microwave.
Drizzle the melted butter and sprinkle the chipotle powder over the sweet potato wedges.
Cook for 30-40 minutes, turning each piece over half way through so that they cook evenly.
While the fries are cooking, combine the Sriracha and mayo in a bowl.
Cook the burgers to desired degree of doneness. Toast the buns on the grill as well.  Add about 1 teaspoon of the aoili to the tops of each bun. Top each burger with one slice of cheese, a slice of red onion and 1/4 of the avocado.
Serve with the fries and the aioli.
I am in love with this dinner. I seriously considered making this again the next night. The sweet potato fries were the perfect mix of sweet and spicy, especially when paired with the aioli. I could eat the fries and aioli by themselves! I always love avocado on burgers, and the addition of pepper jack cheese and red onion made it even more delicious. This is a must try meal!

Cheesy Corn and Black Bean Quesadillas

I love corn, but after three weeks of having 6 ears of corn in my CSA share, I’m running out of ways to use all of it. I adapted this recipe from All You to use fresh corn kernels.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 ears of corn
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 ounces pepper Jack, shredded
3 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 10-inch flour tortillas

Begin by cutting the kernels from the cob.

Prepare your garlic, onion, and jalapeño pepper.

Rinse and drain the black beans and add to a bowl.

 

Using a potato masher (or a fork), coarsely mash the beans.

Heat the corn over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes stirring occasionally until the corn begins to brown.

Add corn to the bowl with the black beans. Heat the oil in a saute pan. Add the onion and jalapeño and cook for 2 minutes.

Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add to the beans and corn. Allow to cool, about 10 minutes.

While the mixture is cooling, shred your cheese. If you can find it, grab pre-shredded cheese from the supermarket to speed up the process.

Add the cheese to the mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Heat up a griddle or a saute pan if you don’t have a griddle. Place a 1/2-cup portion of the bean mixture on half of a side of a tortilla.

Fold the tortilla in half and place on the griddle or in the saute pan over medium-high heat.

Cook for 6 minutes (3 minutes on each side if using a saute pan) or until golden brown and crispy. Cut into wedges and serve. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Despite the jalapeno and the pepper Jack cheese, there really wasn’t much heat at all. If you want to turn it up a notch, either use another chopped jalapeno or use 1 serrano pepper instead.

This would be quite good with some fresh salsa if you have time, but this dish works well on its own as well.

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