Vegan Red Beet Burgers

These vegan red beet burgers will disappear from the rack within minutes.  We all know veggie barbecue is always a bit tricky. It’s hard to come up with an exciting bbq recipe which is not a side dish for a steak. I hope this one here will be a starter to few more ideas I’ve been collecting for non-meaty bbq season. If you are in doubt about a dish or ingredient being vegan you can look it up on websites like: can vegans eat…. For now I can offer you this delicious option to highlight your Sunday bbq or homemade fast-food dinner.

How to prep millet

First thing to start with is cook the millet. The simplest cooking instruction is to use 1:2 ratio, similar to rice. Usually I also rinse it before cooking to get rid of any bitter residue. The more water you use for cooking the creamier becomes the consistency. In this case stay a little bit under 1:2 ratio to keep the grainy texture. Do not mix it while it cooks to avoid turning into mush, just let it cook under cover for around 20 minutes until all water has soaked in. After it’s cooked you can flake it with a fork and set aside to cool down.

Let’s get to beetsness

Meanwhile take care of beets – wash them, peel them and grate over large holes. One thing you need to know about this recipe – it can get messy as beets (or beet juice) after peeling, grating and making patties will leave pink stains on your skin, clothes or cutting board. My advice is to put an old t-shirt, keep your cutting board wet (this will dilute the beet juice and make it easy to wash later) and use gloves for the beet grating part. If it’s too late and your hands look like after a blood bath rub some lemon juice in your skin. This will help with removing the pinkish color.

Chop-chop

After prepping the beets set them aside in a large bowl and mince other ingredients. The finer you chop onion, garlic and ginger the better.  That’s the secret to keep your vegan beet burgers sticky when making the patties and firm when baking or grilling afterwards. In the next step cut the parsley and add all items to the bowl with grated beets. Before adding sunflower seeds, roast them for 5 minutes in a dry pan while shaking the pan once in a while. This will bring out nutty flavour to our burgers.

Mix all listed ingredients together, ideally with your hands to get the feel of sticky consistency. Make a scoop out of your hand and start forming the patties. Place them on the tray  with a little distance from each other and put them in the oven. After 20 minutes flip the patties with a spatula and bake for another 6-8 minutes. You can keep them in the fridge for few days or freeze them for later.

As a beets lover I have few more options other than the vegan red beet burgers that could make your belly happy. One of my favourite ones is the cold red beet soup with dill and kefir – looks great and tastes great!