Spicy Bison Sliders with Purple Sweet Potatoes

It was Superbowl Sunday 2016. I was just finishing my first round of Whole30, and I was getting bored of your standard protein and vegetable combos. I was facing a day with pizza, wings and drinks...everything I loved, none of which I could partake. So one trip to the store later I was introduced to two of my new favorites: purple sweet potatoes and bison. 

So real talk...one of the keys to my weight loss success has been eating a lot of small portions. But like a lot, a lot. Roughly three of these equals one burger, and something about eating three of something makes me feel way more satisfied than eating one burger. 

Aside from that these are great for a crowd, are low carb, and actually ended up being more popular than the pizza. Small victories here people!

RECIPE:

Yields 10 Sliders

Ingredients:
1 Large Purple Sweet Potato, at least 7” long (Or two smaller sweet potatoes – you need to get twenty ¼” thick slices out of it, so bring a ruler if you must ☺) 
1lb Ground Bison
1 Medium Jalapeno
Pepper, de-seeded and diced small
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Spicy Smoked Paprika (I used Pimenton Picante) 
1 tbsp Crushed Aleppo Chili
1 tsp Kosher Salt for Bison
Olive Oil, Sea Salt & Pepper for Potato Slices

Instructions:
For The Potatoes: 
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees. Cut Purple Sweet Potato in ¼” thick slices, you’ll need 20 of them. Toss in a bowl with a big glug of olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Make sure both sides of each potato slice are coated well with oil and seasoning. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake in oven for 10 minutes on each side. Once done baking, set aside.

For the Sliders: 
Mix your ground Bison, Garlic Powder, Kosher Salt, Crushed Aleppo Chili pepper, Spicy Smoked Paprika, and Jalapeno Pepper together. Once well incorporated, make small patties that will fit the diameter of your potato slices (what I would equate to meatball size). Grill patties for 5 minutes, then flip and finish cooking until desired doneness (I cooked mine for about 4 minutes on the second side).

To Assemble: 
Place 10 of your potato slices on a plate and place a cooked patty on top of each. Smother in desired amount of Cashew-Less Vegan Queso* recipe from @minimalistbaker and top with two small pickle slices (read your labels and make sure your pickles are compliant!). Top with another potato slice, and devour! 

*I altered the Cashew-Less Vegan Queso recipe by making my own almond milk as well as my own salsa of chopped tomatoes, green chilies, chopped onions and garlic (If you have a compliant salsa of choice, please skip this step). I also didn’t use the thickening agent, and took her optional advice and added smoked paprika and compliant hot sauce to finish.