These Sweet Potato, Kale and Black Bean Patties are an easy way to get picky toddlers to LOVE eating vegetables! This healthy toddler meal idea can be made ahead of time, is freezer friendly, and perfect for baby led weaning. Older kids and adults will love them too!
Healthy meal ideas for babies and toddlers
Parenthood is full of surprises. One of the things that really took me by surprise about being a mom is just how stressful and time consuming feeding a baby and toddler would be. Not only are you short on time, but you have to feed these kids like 3 times a day!! Plus snacks! It’s crazy. Constantly coming up with healthy meal ideas for babies and toddlers is a full time job in itself. That is why I like to have some easy kids meals stashed in the freezer. These Sweet Potato, Kale and Black Bean patties are easy, only have five ingredients, and they freeze and reheat wonderfully.
how to get your picky toddler to eat vegetables
If you follow me on instagram, you may have been following my journey of starting my baby on solids. Although I started him on purees rather than starting with Baby Led Weaning, we switched away from purees as soon as he was able to.
I’ve enjoyed being able to introduce my son to a variety of foods, and he was such a great eater! I was patting myself on the back for raising a child who loved vegetables – and then I read that it is totally normal for babies to love all kinds of foods and suddenly turn into picky eaters around 13 months. Que the sad trombone – waa-waaaaa.
Luckily, I had started making these Sweet Potato, Kale and Black Bean patties when my son was about 10 months old. I make a batch of 8 patties and freeze them. Then when I need a quick dinner for my kid, I just reheat it for 30-60 seconds in the microwave! Bam, healthy, veggie packed dinner in no time flat. Bonus – my toddler LOVES these sweet potato black bean burgers! He eats them right up and hardly throws any of it on the floor 😆 – and I feel good knowing that he ate a good serving of vegetables and protein.
Because I developed this recipe for my young toddler, I don’t add any salt to them. It’s especially important for babies under 1 year old to have very little sodium, so when preparing food for my baby I try to add very little or no salt. But if you want to feed them to adults or older kids, you may prefer to add some salt. I like to serve these with some avocado and cheese for a nutrient packed, healthy lunch or dinner for my one year old.
If you are looking for more make ahead freezer recipes, check out my Make Ahead Meatballs!
Sweet potato, Kale and Black Bean Patties for Babies and Toddlers
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, cooked 1.5-2 cups when cooked and mashed
- 1 cup kale torn and washed
- 1 egg
- 1 cup black beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
To Cook The Sweet Potato:
- (Preferred method) In the instant pot: Place sweet potato in instant pot on a trivet with one cup of water. Cook on manual, high pressure for 16 minutes. Remove skin.
- In the oven: poke holes in sweet potato, bake at 425°F for about 60 minutes or until tender. Remove skin.
- In the microwave: poke holes in the sweet potato. Microwave for 5 minutes or until tender. Remove skin.
To Steam The Kale:
- Place a steamer basket in a pot, fill pot with water just under the bottom of the steamer basket. Add kale to steamer basket and cover. Bring water to a boil, allow kale to steam for 5 minutes or until tender. When cool enough to handle, squeeze excess moisture out of kale.
Make The Sweet Potato Patties:
- Add kale and sweet potatoes to a food processor, blend kale is in tiny pieces and sweet potato is mashed.
- Add sweet potato/kale mixture to a large bowl with egg, bread crumbs, beans, and paprika. Stir until fully mixed. Form the mixture into 8 equal sized patties.
- Heat a large pan over medium/ medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil.
- When the oil is hot, add 4 sweet potato patties to the pan. Cook 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown. Remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack, repeat with the remaining patties. Patties can be served right away or frozen for later.
To Freeze The Sweet Potato Patties:
- Allow patties to completely cool before storing and freezing. Individually wrap each patty with plastic wrap, then store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. To reheat, unwrap sweet potato patty and microwave for 30-60 seconds.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe adapted from Sweet Phi
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J kim says
Hello – I only have bagged beans (goya), not canned. How should I prep the beans before adding to mixture? Thank you.
Meghan says
Hi J, they need to be fully cooked. You can cook them according to the package instructions. A can of beans is 15 ounces, so you can use 1.5 to two cups of the cooked beans in this recipe. Hope that helps!
Christine Cruz says
Hello,
I tired making these tonight . Was I supposed to put the mixture in the fridge before making the patties? They didn’t stay bound together very well- it ended up being a big hash. But still smells good!
Meghan says
Hi Christine – No they shouldn’t need to be refrigerated before hand! This can happen if the patties are too wet, like if you used a larger sweet potato, or if there is too much moisture in the kale. If that happens again, just add more breadcrumbs, then they should stay together. Hope that helps!
Lauren says
Can these be oven baked & if so, at what temperature for how long?
Thanks, can’t wait to make these.
Meghan says
Hi Lauren – I haven’t tried baking them so I can’t be sure. I’m sure it would be fine, but I think pan frying them really adds to the flavor and texture because you get a nice crust on the outside. I do seem to recall one reader baked them and was happy with them.
Aly says
My son is allergic to all beans, what can I replace it with?
Meghan says
Hi Aly, you can make these without the beans.
Leeanne says
Can these be made without the egg. Baby is allergic!
Meghan says
Hi Leanne,
The egg is a binder and helps them stay together. I haven’t tried it without the egg, but I have two suggestions – you could try just leaving the egg out and using more breadcrumbs. You could also try using a flax egg (search my site, I have a recipe for one). I haven’t tried either of these things so I can’t be sure how they work, but that would be where I would start!
Leeanne says
They worked well with extra bread crumbs and no egg 🙂
Meghan says
Great! I’m so happy they worked!
brittany says
Hello,
Could I make this without the kale? I don’t have any kale or spinach.
Meghan says
Hi Brittany – Yes, I do that often!
Jen says
Delicious! Turned out great. I used spinach instead of kale and I think I blended it too long, so it was a little more green than orange, but it still tasted great.
Meghan says
So glad you loved them Jen!
Jen says
Do you think this would work with spinach over kale? Looks like a great recipe, can’t wait to try.
Meghan says
Hi Jen – Yes, I think that would be fine! Just remember that spinach will steam much faster than kale, and it will wilt down more. It will probably steam in 1-2 minutes I would guess?