Whether you follow our Fitter Food Facebook page, have purchased our book (The Paleo Primer) or have checked out the recipes on our website you will be fully aware that we love a good burger here at Fitter Food. So we’ve put together our top tips for awesome burgers!
Burgers are a popular part of our diet for good reason, they’re a great protein hit, bursting with flavour and nutrients that can be adapted to meet anyone’s taste buds. However, most importantly, they are so easy to make – so batch cooking is a piece of cake! You can make them spicy or herb based, reheat them, freeze them, use for the next day’s lunch, wrap in lettuce, top with cheese, eat with a salad or chips. The possibilities are endless. Mmmmmm burgers.
We have made our fair share over the years and consider ourselves a bit of a pro in that department 🙂 so we wanted to share 5 tips to help you develop some bad ass burger making skills.
1) Add Tomato Puree
Tomato puree is a fantastic source of the antioxidant lycopene, adds amazing flavour and keeps them nice and moist. This is great if you’re batch cooking for next few days. Generally leaner meats such as chicken or turkey need a little more puree as they can easily dry out compared to fattier red meat burgers.
2) Add Egg Yolks
Many people think adding an egg to your burgers will help bind the mixture, however, the truth is it actually makes little difference. We add egg yolks for two reasons; nutrients and moisture. Egg yolks are packed with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and pack a hit of calcium, iron and zinc as well as vitamins B6 and B12. Similar to tomato puree they also really add moisture so they don’t dry out.
3) Beyond Herbs & Spices
Get more creative with your burgers. Whilst herbs, spices and seasoning are essential for flavour but don’t be afraid to add some extra ingredients, we’ve added chorizo, chopped spinach, grated carrots, jalapeño peppers, cheese, apple, cooked plantain and of course BACON and boy does it taste good. In fact one of our most popular burger recipes is the beef and chorizo burgers. Check them out here and be sure to give them a try. Here are some other awesome combinations to consider:
- Pork, apple and sage.
- Lamb, carrot and cumin.
- Chicken, red pepper and chorizo.
- Beef, cheddar and spinach.
4) Top Quality Toppings
As awesome as burgers are, what you serve them up with plays a huge role in their awesomeness potential. We tend not to eat bread so usually replace the bun with an iceberg lettuce wrap, which does the job and adds some crunch. Topping your burger with cheese, a dollop of homemade guacamole, bacon or beef tomatoes make all the difference. Great burger sides include plantain chips, sweet potato chips, regular potato wedges as well as a good salad or vegetable stir-fry.
Of course it goes without saying that a good quality ketchup needs to be present. Check out ours here.
5) Get Good Quality Meat
Sounds obvious but if you want a decent burger you really need to invest in good quality meat, simple. Head to your local butchers and ask a few questions about how the meat is raised and fed. There are also lots of places you can order online, one of our favourites is Paleo Nutrition Wales where you can be sure you’re getting fantastic quality.
So there you have it. Five quick tips guaranteed to take your burger making skills to the next level. Get involved, get creative and when you make an epic creation be sure to share on the Fitter Food Facebook page or on Twitter or Instagram with the #fitterfoodburger.
