To celebrate Vegan Australia's Love a Lamb Day we proudly present this recipe for Veggie patties from the book Vegan Ninja by Paul Maguire.

Veggie patties

These taste terrific and are very versatile. They're a real hit at BBQs with a splash of tomato sauce. They go with all sorts of salads and vegetable dishes, tomato, peanut or white sauces. You name it. As long as there are no inquisitive teenagers in the house, they can last in the fridge to provide a week or so of leftover meals and sandwich lunches. Or you can throw them in the freezer until needed. They are lifesavers.

Makes about 30 patties.

Ingredients

• 1 good sized sweet potato
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cup raw cashews, roughly chopped
• 400 gm tin cannellini (or butter) beans
• 1 tablespoon tahini paste
• Juice of 2 lemons
• About 5 slices multigrain bread
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Dessertspoon of sweet chilli sauce
• 1 1/2 handfuls of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup plain flour

Method

1. Peel the sweet potato, cut it into 1cm cubes and place it in a saucepan with just enough water to cover it. Cook until tender but not too soft, about 15 minutes. Drain, set aside and cool.
2. Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft, add the cumin and cook a further 30 seconds to combine, then take off the heat. This pan can be used later to cook all the patties.
3. Using a food processor, process the bread slices down into breadcrumbs. Make sure they are fairly even, without big lumps. There should be at least two cups of breadcrumbs. Set them aside in a large mixing bowl.
4. Drain and rinse the cannellini beans in water.
5. Using the processor, process the beans with the onion mixture, cashews, tahini and lemon juice. Put everything in together before starting the machine, rather than adding ingredients.
6. Whiz it all up for about 30 seconds to chop the cashews up a bit, but not too small, as you want to retain pieces for texture rather than having it too smooth.
7. Now add this mix to the breadcrumbs in the bowl along with the sweet potato, salt and pepper, chilli sauce and parsley. Stir it all with a fork until it is an even mix. You may need a little more lemon juice to help hold it together if it is too dry.
8. It is best, but not essential, if the sweet potato is cool when forming the patties.
9. Put plain flour in a shallow dish or bowl, then using a tablespoon, form each patty and coat them in flour. Heat a small amount of oil in a large pan and fry patties.

Links

• Buy Vegan Ninja book
• Learn about the horrors of Australian lamb industry (graphic)