Beet Quinoa Burger. Vegan. GF.

Beet quinoa burger.

Oh this dreamy, protein-packed burger hit the spot yesterday not to mention, allowed me to use up the beets harvested from our garden last week.  Okay, so you’re thinking you dislike the earthly flavor of beets, right?  My husband’s main complaint until I made these burgers during football Sunday.  I didn’t mention what was in them, after all he was paying more attention to the game and was too busy screaming at the television. I created this super flavorful burger and put it in from to him and he loved it.  Then I divulged the ingredients.  He was shocked.

The burger pan fries up so beautifully.  Crispy exterior with a nice crunch.  The flavors are wonderful.  This recipe made 8 burgers (not huge or too small).  They keep in the fridge or freezer if packaged well.  Perfect make-ahead food for the week.  I prefer to add these to a big salad in lieu of a bun (which I don’t eat).  They were a hit and let’s face it… the protein in quinoa is more than beef so this is a big time winner especially after my run yesterday.  Okay enough rambling… let’s get to this!
Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked quinoa
1 cup of beets, raw -washed and peeled, then grated with a box grater
1/3 cup of oats, ground down to flour
1 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup small yellow onion, peeled and diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
1/2 jalapeno, diced (optional)
Oil

Method:

Drizzle a bit of oil (1 tbl) into a sauté pan and add your onions and garlic over medium heat.  Cook for about 3-4 minutes or until just translucent.  Remove from heat.  Into a food processor, add your oats and blend down to a flour consistency.  Then add the onion/garlic,  quinoa, beets, black beans, spices, mustard, salt and jalapeño if using.  Pulse about 4-6 times until a coarse consistency forms, not blended down to a paste mind you.

Add another drizzle of oil to your sauté pan that you cooked the onions/garlic in.  Once hot, by hand, form your burgers into patties.  Place carefully into your fry pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes per side over medium heat.  Let the burgers crisp up on each side.  Cook in batches.  Then serve or let cool completely before wrapping up to refrigerate or freeze.  I like to wrap in parchment paper and then add them all carefully to a ziploc baggie.

If serving on buns, top with mustard, ketchup, sliced onion, pickles, jalapeños, lettuce or whatever you prefer.

Beets from our garden.

The color on these beets was insane!

I cooked in a nonstick fry pan.


I served ours with habanero ketchup on top for an extra kick.



So we hit up NYC this past weekend to celebrate our 20th and to meet up with friends running the marathon.  We all had lunch together on Friday and it was surreal to finally be in the company of  long time friends from Instagram!  We all had a great time.

Gina (happytrigirl) with me at Chelsea Market.

Bill & I with all the awesome friends.  Christina (theathletarian), Greg (nycsweat), Michele (nycrunningmama) and Gina (tagged above).

From there Bill and I had dinner with our oldest friends – the sushi at Blue Ribbon Sushi in Soho was the best!

And on the way to dinner we saw this and for some reason I was captivated and had to take a pic…

Saturday, we ran along the Hudson, to the financial district.  Then grabbed bagels to bring home. Went to The Butcher’s Daughter for brunch.  By Chloe for lunch (always hungry) and then met up with another friend for tea before we headed home.  Here are some fun pics from the weekend…

We stayed at the Dream hotel and this was the view from our bed.  Gah!

Windy and cold run along the Hudson.

So last week I ended with my highest mileage of the week since before surgery: 36 miles!

This week so far, training looks like this…

Sunday: 8 outdoor miles
Monday: Cross training.  60m elliptical, 50 incline of 11 on the treadmill walking, weightlifting legs/upper body

That’s it from here.  Back to cooking!

— Knead to Cook