Beet Burger

So this weekend, we came back from a long vacation to a sparsely stocked fridge. But we did have a few beets and I knew it was time to make these beet burgers from the post punk kitchen that had caught my eye a long, long time ago.


The recipe:

1 1/4 cups cooked, cooled brown rice 
1 cup cooked brown or green lentils, cooled, drained well
1 cup shredded beets
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon thyme, rubbed between your fingers
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel (or finely crushed fennel seed)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons very finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons smooth almond butter
1/2 cup very fine breadcrumbs

Olive oil for the pan

Peel beets and shred with the shredder attachment of your food processor, then set aside. Change the attachment to a metal blade. Pulse the brown rice, shredded beets and lentils about 15 to 20 times, until the mixture comes together, but still has texture. It should look a lot like ground meat:

Now transfer to a mixing bowl and add all the remaining ingredients. Use your hands to mix very well. Everything should be well incorporated, so get in there and take your time, it could take a minute or two.

Place the mixture in the fridge for a half hour to chill.

Preheat a cast iron pan over medium-high. Now form the patties. Each patty will be a heaping 1/2 cup of mixture. To get perfectly shaped patties, use a 3 1/2 inch cookie cutter or ring mold (I have pics of how to do it here.) Otherwise, just shape them into burgers with your hands.

Pour a very thin layer of oil into the pan and cook patties for about 12 minutes, flipping occasionally. Do two at a time if you’re pan isn’t big enough. Drizzle in a little more oil or use a bottle of organic cooking spray as needed. Burgers should be charred at the edges and heated through.

Serve immediately. But they taste pretty great heated up as well, so if you want to cook them in advance, refrigerate, then gently heat in the pan later on, then that is cool, too.

My Photos:

My Notes:

1. Used the food processor and it was clutch in shredding those beets.
2. Brown rice was good-- I didn't really wait for it to cool before I mixed it in.
3. I used several cloves of garlic and upped the amount of dry spices used and almond butter
4. The dough was very sticky and easy to mold. Made for easy cooking.
5. The DH fried them on the pan, and complied after several reminders to try for 8 minutes per side,
6. Delicious. Crunchy on the outside, but not dry on the inside at all. Not sweet. Great flavor-- I really like the fennel.
7. We doubled the recipe and had about 16 small-medium patties.