Looking for a new and healthy way to enjoy your veggie burgers? You must try these delicious Umami Beet Burgers.
What is Umami? Umami is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It is often described as a savoury taste. Umami is a Japanese word that translates to “pleasant savoury taste”. Umami rich foods include many meats, but vegans can find umami favours in mushrooms, soy sauce, tomatoes, roasted nuts, seaweed, nutritional yeast, miso paste, and olives.
The porcini mushrooms, soy sauce, almond butter, and tomato paste in these beet burgers make them rich, meaty, and about as carnivorous as you can get with vegetables. The blood-red beets only contribute to the visceral experience. I don’t think you’d fool anyone into thinking these beet burgers are ground filet mignon, but I bet once they take a bite, they really, really won’t care.
Umami Beet Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice cooked and cooled
- 1 cup lentils cooked and cooled
- 1 cup beets shredded
- ¼ cup porcini mushrooms
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 pinch black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon almond butter roasted
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ⅓ cup breadcrumbs use gluten-free, if necessary
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil for cooking
Instructions
- Pulse the rice, lentils, and beets together in a food processor. Pulse until the veggie mixture begins to come together. The mixture should stick to itself and begin to form a ball, but it still has some chunky texture. Depending on your food processor, this can take 10 to 25 pulses. Place the mixture in a large mixing bowl.
- Grind the porcini mushroom into a fine powder in a spice or clean coffee grinder. Removing any large pieces, add the mushroom powder to the beet mixture. Add all of the remaining ingredients, and with your hands, incorporate everything until it is thoroughly combined.
- Form the mixture into 6 round patties, or for larger burgers, 4 patties. If the burgers are going to be grilled, the larger patties are recommended. Allow the patties to chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or overnight if made in advance.
- To cook indoors, heat a large, heavy-bottomed nonstick or cast-iron skillet to medium-high heat, and spray or drizzle the pan with a thin layer of oil. Cook the beet burgers for 5 to 6 minutes on each side, or until they are dark brown and crispy around the edges.
- To grill, brush burgers with a thin layer of oil and grill, checking after 3 minutes, until brown and charred on both sides, about 6 minutes. Serve with your favourite burger fixings and sides.