Beetroot “Muffin” Burgers

Plant-based burgers are available at supermarkets, fast food chains and on endless Instagram photos but a lot of them have binding or stabilizing ingredients that aren’t easy to buy so you can’t make them at home. I’ve been trying to make a mixture that uses supermarket ingredients and is easy to cook so that we can eat plant based burgers during the week… Well I’ve had a huge breakthrough and I’m SO excited about it, my Beetroot Muffin Burgers!

The biggest challenge with any veggie burger is getting it to hold together and eat like the texture of a regular meat burger. The texture comes from sunflower seeds and walnuts which I then blend together with some suet which helps them hold their shape and gives the fatty juiciness you get from a regular burger. The burger colour is created by the beetroots and the humble egg binds everything together.

Cooking veggie burgers can be a messy business so I wanted an easy way to cook them. I tried putting the mixture into a muffin tin and was over the moon with the result. The burgers were crispy on the outside and soft and juicy inside and they didn’t fall apart when we ate them, they just felt like burgers. And the added bonus is you can cook lots of burgers at the same time without any extra effort. This quantity makes 12 slider-sized burgers. You can freeze the uncooked mixture so it’s one lot of effort for two nights of family dinners.

INGREDIENTS
Makes 12 Slider-Sized Burgers
75g uncooked quinoa
120ml water
1 medium sized onion
100g walnuts
100g green pumpkin seeds
50g vegetable suet
375g cooked beetroot
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
100g breadcrumbs
1 egg

• Put the quinoa into a small pan with a lid and add 120ml of water then bring to the boil, immediately turn the heat down to low, put the lid on and cook for 20 minutes.
• Peel and dice the onion then cook in a frying pan on a medium heat with a little olive oil until they are soft and browned. Stir regularly.
• Put the sunflower seeds into the food processor and blend for 1 minute then add the walnuts and blend for another minute.
• Add the suet and blend for a minute, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary. Add the cooked onions and blend for a minute.
• Chop the beetroot into small pieces then add to the food processor and blend until smooth.

• Pre-heat the oven to 220° (220° fan). Tip the mixture into a mixing bowl then add the breadcrumbs, cooked quinoa, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin and salt. Stir everything together.
• Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk then add to the mixture and stir in to combine.
• Fill as many wells as you want in a non-stick muffin tin then place the tray into the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

• Turn the muffin tray over and the burgers will fall out. Serve in slider buns with lettuce and Pickled Carrot Salad. Freeze any leftover uncooked mixture to use another day.