Beet On The Bread

I have to admit, I was a bit reluctant to try this recipe. I'm not a big fan of beets. But wow! This was hands down one of the better homemade burgers I ever tasted. Earthy beets, smokey paprika, honey mustard vinaigrette dressing and blue cheese. All very robust flavours, but they work beatifully together. The original recipe is by Louisa Shafia, and I tweaked it a little bit to fit my own taste.

Ingredients

- 1 onion 
- olive oil
- 2 medium red beets (grated)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- handful of walnuts
- handful of golden raisins
- teaspoon of smoked paprika 
- 100 gr canned lentils (drained and rinsed)
- sea salt
- pepper
- 100 gr cooked brown rice (at room temperature)
- blue cheese
- apple cider vinegar
- alfalfa sprouts
- 1 raw egg
- Dijon mustard
- honey
- hamburger bun

Preparation

Slice the onion into fine cubes. In a pan, sauté the onion in the oil over low heat for 20 minutes, until it starts to darken and caramelize. Turn down the heat slightly and add the beets along with the garlic, walnuts, raisins, smoked paprika, salt and black pepper and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. At the end turn up the heat add a splash of apple cider vinegar and let it cook out. 

While this is cooking you start making the honey-mustard vinaigrette. Take a spoon of honey, about the same amount of mustard. Add a splash of vinegar and about a spoon of olive oil . Whisk and add pepper and salt.

Transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor and pulse several times until chunky. In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture with the lentils. Now add the rice and egg to the food processor, and pulse to form a coarse puree. Add the rice mixture to the onion-lentil mixture and mix well with your hands. 
Now start making the burgers. First roll the mixture into a ball ( take about a handful of the mixture). Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add oil to coat the bottom. Place the burgers in the pan and cook undisturbed for 5 minutes. Gently flip the burgers and turn down the heat to low. Add a slice of blue cheese on the burger so it can start to melt. Cover with a lid  until the burgers have a firm, brown crust. 
Now put the burger between your favourite kind of bun, drizzle some of the hony-mustard dressing and finish with alfalfa sprouts.

Beet On The Bread

Music

1 2 3 4... The Ramones with Beat on the Brat. These guys don't need an introduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9EhPunI6xg