Our idea is that the vegetable component should be, to some degree, formed into a thin patty and fried.
We will do away with sliced tomato – it adds unnecessary liquid and the actual flavour is not necessary. Achieving a range of textures and complimentary flavours can be done with other ingredients instead. Otherwise we get too many slippy slidey layers that create too much height.
Sliced onion, not chopped. Caramelised, not raw. It could be fried in the residual grease and grist of the burger. Possibly it can be batch cooked, and later reheated for a moment or even served at room temperature.
Lettuce remains. It looks great and suggests healthy. And it adds to the asymmetrical look we want outside of the perfectly round bun.
All the other vegies will be in a fritter. The order will be bottom bun, onion, lettuce, fritter, sauce, cheese, burger patty, cheese sauce, top bun.
Many burger chains include hash browns in some burgers, and this is not to different, but way healthier and tastier.
Possible ingredients for the vegie patty / fritter:
- Spices
- Garlic
- Chili flakes
- Spring onion
- BBQ sauce (if not in the beef patty)
- Beets / beetroot
- Mushroom
- Black beans / kidney beans
- Grated halloumi
- Broccoli
- Red & green peppers, finely diced
- Peas
All ingredients are blended or coarsely chopped. There needs to be some texture and bits that stick out
No corn, no cauliflower, no chickpeas, no quinoa, no potato.
My gut says halloumi (grated), beans (mashed), peppers (diced and sliced, both), powdered broccoli, spring onion and chili flakes. Just need a binder (unless the halloumi works)
Binder? That’s the hard part. We want the fritter to be thin and a bit crunchy. We don’t want it to be thick and soft. These ideas were found online and should be tested:
- Egg (of course). Consider just yolks
- Breadcrumbs (of course)
- Beef fat
- Bacon paste (blended microwaved bacon)
- Corn starch
- Chickpea flour
- Rice flour
- Flax seed
- Onion soup mix
- Oatmeal
- Powdered mushrooms
- Powdered tomato
- Kuzu root
Note, for different flavours of burger, everything stays the same except for the fritter and sauce. Some ingredients can be there for health (or colour) but not actually tasted or noticed othewise. A sprinkle of broccoli is good for you!