Yeah, I said beets. I've never cooked with beets before but I keep seeing people buy them at the farmers' market. There's gotta be a reason people are going all Dwight Schrute with their veggies, right? So I joined the crowd and purchased my very first beets.
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| Bears. Beets. Battle Star Galactic. |
Now, what to do with these bad boys? As you know, we had company over for dinner last week. The weather was hot. That means we should definitely grill out. Burgers and fries it is.
I Googled "beet burgers" and scrolled through lots of different recipes... and some reviews that said beet burgers were quite possibly the worst idea ever. I ended up choosing
this recipe because it looked pretty simple, I had all the ingredients, and it called for lentils. You know how much
I love lentils.
The beets were surprisingly easy to work with. I just roasted them up, chopped them up, and made burgers. All without getting a smidge of pink on my dress.
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| Those are some magenta burgers. For real. |
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| Are we a bit skeptical? |
The recipe calls for you to cook the burgers in a skillet, but I thought they'd hold up on the grill. Just to be safe, I put down some foil to keep the burgers from sticking to the grill or falling through. Have you seen those commercials? You know, where the burgers stick and dinner is ruined and they're all, "This wouldn't have happened if you would have used Reynold's Wrap!" Yes, I am a marketer's dream come true. I believe everything I see on TV.
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| This is going to be just great! |
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| Uhh... this isn't going so well. |
Meanwhile, Jana was putting on a fashion show inside. Look how excited Mya is about the fashion show.
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| We voted lose the belt. We are such fashionistas. |
And Drew became more and more skeptical about the beet burgers. If you want my honest opinion, I think he was rooting for the beet burgers to fail from the beginning.
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| Not excited to be flipping beet burgers. Mad Face. Grr. |
Drew decided the burgers weren't going to make it on the grill, so we brought them in and finished them up on the stove... much to his delight. I think he was hoping we'd scratch the beet burgers and go to Chipotle. You wish, Drew.
To go with the burgers and fries I whipped up some
Mmmm Sauce from
Peas & Thankyou, my newest blog obsession. I love this sauce. I mean, I love sauce in general, but this stuff is super good. I've eaten the entire batch. It goes on fries, burgers, salad, pasta, crackers, pita, and anything else you can think of. I licked the bowl. I like it.
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| "Mmmm!" |
Jana enjoyed the Mmmm sauce too. DeAnna didn't think it lived up to the hype. I'll go ahead and eat hers.
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| Jana, is that your Mmmm face? |
The burgers turned out pretty good. Jana and DeAnna agreed. I don't know if they were just being nice... or if they'd just had enough sangria to make a hot pink burger seem yummy.
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| Beet burger & Sweet Tater Fries. |
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| Beet burgers can be sexy, right D? |
You know you've had too much sangria when you get Jana to make sexy faces with her beet burger.
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| She just loves those fries! |
And, now let's get an opinion from someone who won't lie to avoid hurting my feelings and isn't suffering from sangria-induced impaired judgement. To put it mildly, Drew was not a fan.
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| Oh no. |
He took one bite and called it quits. He talked about going out for food, but never actually did. It's probably a good thing. After sitting through us girls going through several pitchers of sangria, I don't know if he would have come back.
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| So refreshing, yet so wrong. |
Here's the recipe, in case you haven't been scared off yet.
Lentil Beet Burgers
Ingredients:
- 2/3 c. quick cooking wheat bulgur (soaked in water for 4-6 hours)
- 3/4 c. dry red lentils (soaked in water for 4-6 hours)
- 2/3 c. raw cashews (blended into a powder)
- 2 cups beets, washed
- 8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
- 1.5 tsp. sea salt
- 4 Tbsp. olive oil
Method:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Place the beets in a 9 x 13 pan, add a cup or so of water and cover it with foil and bake the beets for about 45-60 minutes or until very tender.
- Allow beets to cool slightly, then peel off skin and discard the root.
- Dice the beets and set aside.
- In a skillet, heat 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil and saute the mushrooms over medium-high heat until cooked.
- In a food processor, pulse the cashews into a medium fine powder.
- Add the beets, sauteed mushrooms, lentils, bulgur, and sea salt and blend until combined.
- Form mixture into 8 burger patties. Place them on a tray lined with wax paper and refrigerate them for 1-2 hours before cooking.
- When ready to cook the burgers, heat remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet or griddle on medium high heat. Cook burgers for about 5 minutes on each side, but try not flip more than once to avoid burgers falling apart.
- Serve on grilled sourdough bread or buns with your favorite toppings!
Happy {meatless} Monday!
