Who doesn’t like a burger! I judge a place on it burgers…they are one of my very favourite foods! However meat is really expensive these days! Especially if you are looking for the good stuff. The cost of meat production is also set to rise even further, so what can we do about this?
Mince recipes have always been good at feeding the family with a big hearty meal but its not so easy anymore. A classic spag bol or a shepherds pie are great at feeding a big family on a budget but we are having to look for ways to make meals cheaper whilst doing the same job.
This budget burger recipe is all about stretching the burger and making the meat you have go further. Its designed to give you the ability to feed more people with cheaper, ‘filler’ ingredients.
Keep in mind it also works for any meat dish whether you are making meat balls, taco meat, lasagne, nachos, the filler stretching world is your oyster!
Feeding your family on a budget is difficult enough let alone wanting to make the food healthy and tasty, but I’m hoping these burgers tick all the boxes.
Lets get into this…
How to make the budget patty go further?
The key to all of this is stretching the burger meat and making it all go further and feed more people, and to do that we are going to use ‘fillers’. Usually oats, or a particular veg or bean, they can make a burger lower in fat and provide a different flavour, texture and add another veg into the diet!
Fillers can also make, what sometimes is quite a large, heavy meal, lighter and fresher. There is potential to give a different experience with different ingredients, flavours and textures. The chances are, anything you pack your burgers with is going to be cheaper than the meat you are replacing.
Fillers can however, decrease the flavour punch, moisture level and overall fatty ‘burgeryness’ but we do have ways around this.
These days I would never make a burger without some sort of filler, especially trying to get more veg into the kids and potentially, sometimes, less meat!
Here are some fillers which are cheap and readily available…
- Grated veg is a delicious edition to any burger. Grated carrot, squash, courgette are all good choices and can provide moisture in a burger if needed.
- Cooked oats and Bulgar wheat are a cheap and bulky filler to a burger.
- Cooked beans and lentils are a super healthy addition. Some good choices include Chickpeas beans, Borlotti beans, Cannellini beans, Haricot bean, Black beans and Green lentils. I tend to crush a few and leave a few whole or blend everything to a paste and flavour that as you fancy.
- Mushrooms – Iv listed mushrooms separately as they are brilliant in this sort of circumstance. Normal, cheap white or chestnut mushrooms. Chopped or whizzed up small, then fried or roasted off and added to the meat is excellent. They can also suck up a bit of the meat fat when you cook the burger. Delicious!
- Bread and bread crumbs are very cheap, and probably the easiest filler to use.
Tips for adding fillers to your budget burger recipe…
- It’s all about texture when you are adding your fillers to your burger mix. Beans and pulses will work for a bit more texture in the burger patty where as if you use finely diced mushroom or bread crumbs it will be a fine texture with not too much bind. You can adapt as you please and use different fillers.
- When using fillers don’t go more than 50/50 meat to filler. You can ofcourse, but you get into the realms of loosing the fatty, meaty, burgeryness we are striving for.
- You will almost always benefit from a binder in your burger patties when you are using fillers to stretch the amount. A small egg is a good binding agent. Also bread or bread crumbs with a bit of added moisture like a dash of milk, olive oil or even water can do the job.
- Give your burger some seasoning! Sometimes, especially when Im using beans or bread, I tend to over season as they can be relatively bland flavours without a bit of salt and pepper added. You are taking away, potentially half of the meat, the fat, the flavour, so you are going to need to add flavour and probably moisture.
My budget burger patty recipe…
Ingredients…
400g chickpeas, drained
1tsp Smoked paprika
500g beef mince
50g strong cheddar cheese
1 small egg
3 crackers, finely crushed
Salt
Method…
- Add your chickpeas and paprika to a small food processor and pulse until your desired thickness – I go slightly chunky…
- Add your chickpea mixture to a large bowl and add all of the rest of your ingredients with a very good sprinkle of the salt. Crush together with your hands combining well…
- Shape into 6, good sized burger patties and store in the the fridge until you are ready to use…
Additions to the burger…
Obviously you cant serve a burger without…
- Brioche Bun
- Lettuce
- A slice of tomato
- A slice of American cheese
- A sliced gherkin
- Mayo, ketchup or BBQ sauce
I buy most of these additions on a weekly basis or keep them in the fridge until I need them but none of these ingredients increase the price too much…
Pricey but tasty additions…
- Chilli jam
- Change up the cheese e.g. Blue Cheese, Chilli Cheese, Cheddar
- Bacon
- Guacamole
- Roasted Mushrooms
How to cook the best budget burger?…
In my opinion…always BBQ! I cant make any burger and not have it cooked over fire. Either straight onto the bars of the BBQ or on a griddle plate cooked like a smash burger.
4-5 minutes each side for a medium burger with a season on both sides as it cooks. Delicious!
