I was inspired to make one of these after eating one similar to it at the Cheesecake Factory.  I used a recipe from this site called Post Punk Kitchen.  Only modified it slightly.  I’m a huge veggie burger fan, and I loved these.  I will warn you, they had mixed reviews at the house.

Here’s what you’ll need:  This makes quite a few burgers, I’d say around 12 or 15?  I ate them for lunch for a couple of days.  You may want to half the recipe.

Burger Ingreds:

• 2.5 cups of brown rice
• 2 cups of lentils, cooked, cooled, and drained
• 2 cups of shredded beets
• 1+ tsp of salt
• a few (maybe 6-10?) cranks of the fresh pepper
• 2 tsp of thyme
• 1 tsp of fennel (I only had seeds, so crushed them up)
• 2.5 tsp of dry mustard
• 1/3 of an onion, chopped finely (1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp, or a heaping 1/4 cup)  sidenote:  a sweet onion would be really good here, too.
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup almond butter (love this stuff!)
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• **I added some of my favorite Mrs Dash to the mix.  You don’t have to do this step, but I like a lot of kick, so I just chose a flavor and shook away…)

Burger toppings:

• sharp cheddar cheese or smoked provolone (any cheese to top the burger)
• lettuce
• purple onion
• tomato
• seasoned avocado
• whole wheat english muffin or thinbun

Start by making the brown rice.  This takes the longest.  Cook according to the pkg instructions.

 

Now fill another pot with water, and add the 2 cups of lentils.  Cook according to the pkg directions.  Fact:  Lentils are high in protein and fiber and other great amino acids.

Cook with the lid ajar.

Grab the beets.  Wash em up.  I have to say this was my first fresh beet experience.

Now peel and shred.

Maybe I should have used gloves?  It looked bad, but luckily it was gone by the next day.

Midway through the shredding, I switched to my beloved Ikea shredder.  My beets were flying everywhere and I really didn’t want to be cleaning every few shred strokes.  The tool sits snugly on a container, so you don’t have to hold the shredder.  Brilliant.

Add 2 cups to a bowl.  You could pulse this in a processor, but I just for the big chunks…it’s up to you.

Add the brown rice and lentil to the beets.  I used a hand mixer to quickly stir it up.

Now add the seasonings:

1 heaping tsp. of salt

pepper (as much as you’d like)

2 tsp of thyme

 1 tsp of fennel

2.5 tsp of dry mustard

1/3 of a chopped onion (forgot to take a pic of this)

4 cloves of garlic (even the mention of garlic makes my mouth water!)

1/4 cup almond butter

Now a cup of bread crumbs.

Mix it all up.

The recipe said to chill it for at least 1/2 hour, but we were ready for din, so I made them right away.

Grab a pan and spray it lightly w/ olive oil spray.  Heat to medium heat.  Shape the mix into patties.  Toss them on the pan to cook.

and

I cooked them until they were brown, about 6-8 minutes.  Then flip them.

Serve with the fixins you like.  I served mine with a toasted whole wheat english muffin, sharp white cheddar cheese, and a seasoned avocado.  Yummmm.  I like to make them open-faced so I can have 2 burgers.

Tried a little provolone on this one…

Enjoy!