Roasted red beet burger (vegan) vegan

Preparation – 30 minutes + 2 hours waiting

tip: when using dried black beans, make sure to well or hydrate the black beans one day ahead of making this recipe. Dried uncooked black beans will make your burger firmer than using canned black beans or cooked dried black beans.

Dice the onion and mince the cloves of garlic. Chop 5 dried prunes into small chunks. Grate the pre-cooked red beets and set them aside. Bring 2 quart-pots of water to a boil in one of the small saucepans.

Salt the water and cook the white rice until beyond al dente. This means that the rice must be mushy. Drain liquid from the pan using the sieve and set aside to cool off to room temperature.  

Rinse and then dry the lettuce with a lettuce dryer, store the cleaned lettuce in your refrigerator. While the rice is cooking, heat one tablespoon of olive oil in the other small saucepan and sauté the finely diced onions and minced garlic.

Stir now and then using a wooden spoon. Cook until the onions are a bit browned, make sure to not let it burn. Pour in 2 tablespoons of apple cider (don't inhale the smoke) and let simmer until the apple cider has evaporated completely.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool off to room temperature. Grind 1/4 cup of rolled oats in the food processor. Grind it until the oats become a fine flour. Transfer the rolled oats flour into a small bowl and set aside.

Drain liquid from the cans of black beans, or drain liquid from the bowl when using dried black beans. Transfer the black beans into the food processor and scatter the prunes on top. Pulse in 1-second bursts until roughly chopped.

Don't pulse the ingredients for too long, otherwise, you'll end up with mush, and we need the texture to mimic a burger. Add in the grated red beets, black beans and prune mix, cooked rice, sautéed onions into a large bowl.

Drizzle over a little bit of olive oil, you can use extra-virgin olive oil for better taste. Add in mustard, paprika, cumin, coriander and thyme. Use the silicone spatula to mix the ingredients.  

Taste, and determine how much salt and pepper it needs. Season to taste. Add in oatmeal flour and two medium-sized eggs, mix until you see no traces of oatmeal flour or egg.  

Cover the bowl with the red beet burger mixture with some cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours.  

Baking the roasted red beet burger – 15 minutes

Remove the mixture from your refrigerator and shape hamburger patties using your hands. You can make them as thick as you'd like, just keep in mind that the burgers should remain bite-sized.  

Heat a grill pan over high heat, add in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Normally a grill pan wouldn't need any oil or butter, but for this particular burger, we did to prevent it from sticking. Cook patties on each side long enough that a nice crust forms.

Don't overcrowd the grill pan, since you would have to flip them over using a spatula. When the red beet burger patties are well cooked, add cheese on top (this is optional) at the last minute of cooking.  

Cooking red beet burgers in grill pan serve on burger buns with lettuce, burger and a nice big slice of tomato.  optionally add sauce to liking.

We hope you enjoy these (vegan) red beet burgers, even though they require lots of preparation. You can freeze the red beet mixture for up to a month.