Beetroot and Quinoa Burgers

These Beetroot and Quinoa burgers were good. Ticked the three boxes for me: Looks, texture and flavour.  The taste of these burgers reminded me somewhat of onion rings, but enhanced further with earthy beetroot and the surprise crisp pop of quinoa bursting in your mouth.

The last time I cooked Quinoa for D he disliked it, this time he had a completely different attitude.  He actually praised this deep maroon burger and declared it Delicious - high praise indeed.

If you don’t have Quinoa in your home and I can perfectly understand why you may not have some, as Quinoa is not an ingredient that frequents my home either.  I had some left over from the spiced Quinoa and chickpea salad from last year, the point I am trying to make is that the Quinoa in this recipe can easily be substituted with bulgur wheat, couscous or even brown rice. The original recipe also specified two eggs, I was debating in my head whether to add the eggs or not, as the Beetroot-Quinoa mixture held well when shaped into a burger, but I went ahead and made it with one egg. I do think you could try making these without eggs making it suitable for vegans. 

Beetroot and Quinoa Burgers
Makes 6 – 8 burgers or 12 -14 patties
Ingredients
100g whole Quinoa
175ml water
1 medium beetroot, grated
1 medium onion, grated
100g spelt flour (or wholemeal flour)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon salt
1 medium egg
Vegetable oil to shallow fry
Method
Rinse the Quinoa in a sieve with cold water. Boil in 175ml water for 10 minutes covered with a lid. Remove the saucepan from the heat, mix in a little salt and level on side for 10 minutes covered.  In large bowl, add the grated onion and beetroot, stir in the flour, curry powder and garam masala and salt.

When the Quinoa has cooled down add to the bowl along with the egg. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Leave the mixture to rest for a while.  When ready to eat, divide the mixture into 6 – 8 burger shapes or small patties and fry in a hot frying pan with oil and press them gently whilst cooking. Cook for about 4 – 5 minutes on each side until brown and crisp. Adapted from Vegetarian with a Vengeance.

Yes I know what some of you are thinking; Is this book riding on the success of 'Vegan with a Vengeance'. I've read that 'Vegetarian with a Vengeance' was originally written in Danish and the original Danish title of the book was Vegetarisk Vellyst, which translates as 'Vegetarian Delights'.  However the publishers in the U.K made the decision to market the book with a different title knowing it would attract the attention of the veg(etari)an and non-vegetarian home cooks.  What I will say is, if the title and cover of  the book encourages people to pick it up (and lets be honest about this, it often does), even better if its a vegetable based cookbook and gets people to reflect on their lifestyle habits and incorporate more vegetables in their diet, well that can only be a good thing, don't you think?!.  I think its also important not to lose sight of the passion of the authors of the book Tina Scheftelowitz, a well-reputed food columnist and writer of a handful of cookbooks, including the Danish bestselling cookery series 'Superlicious Cookbooks' and Christine Bille Nielsen, a chef and nutrition economist, both of whom should be respected in their own rights.