Posts tagged Burgers

I like my burgers like I like my men. They need to have substance, compliments, and an accent. If you have those three things, and one egg you can make a burger or patty out of pretty much anything.

Substance: When you think about substance, you need to think about what can you use to make a paste. Is it going to be chicken, turkey, beef, whatever’s on sale? What if it was potatoes and beans? Consider adding potatoes or beans to meat combos as well. Stretches your food budget while adding texture and flavor.

Compliment: When choosing what to put in the burger mixture remember anything you add now you don’t have to add later. I like onions, sweet corn, zucchini, peppers, and mushrooms. 

Accent: There’s a lot of good steak seasonings mixes that work well with beef. Or trying using oregano or Herbes de Provence for chicken or turkey. If you’re using potatoes and beans, go spicy with smoked cayenne, paprika, or chili paste. (It brings another dimension to the otherwise mild reputation the potato has in these parts.)

Time to start cooking,

In the left corner we have the regular ol’potato, dependable and starchy. In the right we have the wine saturated onions and garlic from “How to Use Garlic”, spicy but sweet. Mix your substance (I’ll also be adding red kidney beans) and your compliments together and remember the combination is completely up to you.

Choose your accents or spices and mix them up into a paste-like substance with the rest of the ingredients.For this recipe I used basil, fennel, seasoned salt, and maple pepper. Once you’ve got a sturdy mixture add in one egg to help everything adhere. Vegans you can use some tahini, hummus would work too.

Lastly, form into patties. Keeping them the same size, whichever you prefer, is key to equalized cooking. Grill, pan fry, or bake the patties. I prefer to bake my meatless patties at 375 for 15 minutes and freeze them to use during the week. Cook meats at a higher temperature or for a bit longer, to make sure they’ve been cooked all the way through.

The burgers on the right are the result of the combination I described earlier. The ones on the left have been done with sweet potatoes, corn, red onion, cannellini beans, breadcrumbs, and shallots.