As promised, the burger patties I made up yesterday actually turned out pretty good so Im going to share my recipe with you.

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes.
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes for the whole burger concoction.

Ingredients:

• 500g of Beef Mince. I use the 20% fat version opposed to the lean mince, simply because the fat makes them more juicy and less likely to fall apart. I usually get a kilo and freeze the other half for spaghetti bolognese or tacos or some shit like that.
• 1x Packet of Chicken Noodle Soup or about 2/3 a cup of breadcrumbs.
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Egg
• Parmesan Cheese (about 2 table spoons).
• A big mixing bowl.
• Kitchen scales.
• Something to flatten the burgers down with.
• You can also add stuff like onion and diced bacon or whatever you want to the mix. I prefer to keep it simple. Wochestershire Sauce never goes astray.

Directions:

1. Put mince in mixing bowl
2. Add all the dry ingredients. You can add other spices if you like, I tend not to follow a recipe really I just look in the pantry and do the whole trial an error. I think I put some garlic and herb seasoning in there. Dont be afraid to put too much… there is no such thing. Put what you think you should, then add a little more. Thats the right amount. Liberally season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the egg and any other wet ingredients you may have, mix it in. You will get your hands dirty, but thats part of the fun. You just want to mix it together. Err on the side of caution because if you play with the meat too much it wont combine properly.. oh yeah, depending on the chicken noodle soup, the noodles will be in the burger. It wont affect the taste!

   Ive heard of people putting tomato sauce in their mix. I think thats dumb. But hey, if you like it, try it and if it works… go for it.

4. Doing the simple math… for any Americans, a pound is around half a kilo. So if you want to make quarter pound patties, you need to split this mixture into 4 reasonably equal parts. For those of you going for the calculator… its 125g. This is what the scale is for…
5. I have a piece of Tupperware that I can make the patties with, so I put the container on the scale, zero it out and then add the meat mixture until its around 125g. You wont get it exact, most of mine were around 130-140g. Flatten them out till they are around 2-3cm thick. Repeat this for as many patties as you plan to make.
6. My suggestion is to put them in the fridge for a couple of hours if you have the time to give everything time to settle, and for everything to cool down and combine properly. I usually stack them on a plate with baking paper in between to stop them sticking. Take care to keep the patties together, so you will need to handle them gently.

Cooking the damn things:

1. Get a frypan, add some oil. I used canola oil cos its what I had on hand. I also have peanut oil, but this isnt a stir fry.
2. Heat the oil over a moderate heat. Turn your grill on so it is fired up ready to go (once gain, for the Americans, Im talking about the under the oven grill, not what you consider a BBQ)
3. Once the oil is heated, you can test this by dropping a piece of onion in there and it starts to cook rather than soak the oil… PLACE your patties in one at a time. Dont drop them in, dont throw them in. This isnt some store bought pre-frozen patty. I would recommend using a spatula to lower them in. Let them cook for a few minutes.
4. RESIST the temptation to flip them. Essentially you want the egg and instant soup or bread crumbs to combine everything together in the burger. Once you can see that they are cooked about half way through…THEN  FLIP them.
5. Once they are cooked through, I like to put the cheese on top and put them under the grill until it melts.
6. Add to your burger bun with everything else and eat it!

Health and Diet stuff:

Once again, not a nutritionist, cant tell you the calories, carbs, sugars blah blah blah… but as with any burger you cook, its about what you put on it as much as whats in it. For these burgers, I had the following:

• Avocado – spread on the buns.
• Fried egg – Actually not bad for you. Its essentially protein
• Bacon – Grilled and fat trimmed off it.
• Jarlsberg Cheese (melted onto the burger)
• Beetroot
• Spinach
• Sliced onion – uncooked (healthier because its not covered in oil and has a nice crunch to it).
• Kaiser Roll.

To make this healthier, obvious I could shit can the egg and bacon, add something like pineapple and lettuce. I wont EVER put kale on a burger. I toyed with the idea of silverbeet or shredded carrot. I also forgot the pickles. But yeah, its your burger, do what you like.

As Im typing this I did my post dinner Blood Sugar test (Im non insulin dependant diabetic) and it went from 5.3 to 9.4… so yeah, this is not a food youd eat every night.

However if you’re in the mood for a treat, or you want a simple and easy to make dinner, you can easily make the patties and store them in the freezer or fridge.