The Ultimate Veggie Burg...
2020-08-04
Spring is in the air and that means braai season has arrived. After the wet...
Pink Salt Roasted Beetroot Burgers
Prep 15 mins
Cooking 45 mins
Serves 8
Beetroot really shines when roasted instead of boiled. Roasting really intensifies the pungently earthy flavour of these summer root vegetables wonderfully. You could eat these moreishly plump garnet jewels just as is. But there’s so much more you can do with roast beetroot. Like serve it up with extra dark rye bread, cream cheese, chives and smoked salmon. Or slipping them into a salad with watercress and walnuts. And then of course there’s this burger. It’s a vegetarian delight even meat lovers will love tucking into.
What you will need
- FOR THE BURGERS
- 600g baby beetroot
- 1 onion, peeled and quartered
- 2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Natural Herbs and Spices Himalayan Pink Salt
- 1½ tsp ground coriander
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- FOR SERVING
- 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- Lettuce
- 1 x 400g tin butterbeans, drained
- Cucumber
- 1 small egg
- Hummus
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (easily make your own by blitzing white bread in your food processor)
- Sweet chilli sauce
- Red onion pickle (simply add finely sliced red onion to red wine vinegar with a teaspoon sugar and let it stand for half an hour)
- 1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped AND olive oil, for frying
Method
Use a veggie peeler to peel the beetroot. Place beetroot in a shallow roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Grind over plenty of Natural Herbs and Spices Himalayan salt. Tuck onion and garlic cloves in next to beetroot and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Cover dish with tinfoil and place in a preheated 200 ° C oven. Roast until beetroot is soft – it takes about 30 minutes.
Place roasted beetroot in a food processor along with the roasted onion and spices. Squeeze the garlic out of their casings and add it to the beetroot along with the chickpeas and butterbeans. Pulse until smooth. Stir in egg, fresh coriander and breadcrumbs. Spoon burger-sized patties into a non-stick frying pan with a bit of olive oil. (Cook’s tip: We wanted perfectly shaped patties, so we placed a shallow egg ring in the frying pan and spooned the mix into it to shape it. Lift the ring and voila, a perfectly round beetroot pattie!) Fry over low heat until crisp on one side, then flip over. Build your burger and tuck in.
Recipe concept & photography by Lizet Hartley.
Lizet Hartley is a freelance stills and reel food stylist, food photographer and recipe developer. In her spare time she – rather predictably – cooks. Get more of her recipes on her blog at http://www.melkkos-merlot.co.za
