blogging, first world problems, food and drink, health, momlife

Homemade burgers: stretching ground beef

I made a pile of artisan hamburgers yesterday, as I mentioned I would.

Artisan meaning supplementing the ground beef with some extra ingredients. Supplementing meaning stretching the meat. Stretching because food prices are ridiculous and teenagers want burgers and I can’t stomach mediocre factory meat so I buy grass fed which is more expensive and then stretch it to increase its volume and improve nutrition.

Or something.

Anyway, I chopped and froze veggies again to freeze, as I’ve blogged about before. (Note: that post I just linked to had twice as many likes as I usually get, 100 in total. It seems to be evergreen, a term that means the content is continually relevant and not time-sensitive.)

I had the little chopper out anyway, so I chopped a bunch of nutritious ingredients to add to the ground beef.

That’s oats (thanks for the tip, Ogg), flax, chard (leaves and stems), green onions and spices which included sea salt, black pepper, thyme, steak spice, gralic powder and onion flakes.

I added a couple of eggs to bind the mess and made large and small burgers.

Needless to say, while my hands were elbow deep in raw meat, everything happened: puppy fiascos, phones ringing, strange noises coming from the basement… 🙄

Never fails, does it. 😵 Anyway I ignored it all. 😛

I grilled them on the BBQ (after I realized the Barbie needs a major cleaning…this might be a project for today).

Of course I neglected to take final pictures of the dressed and constructed burgers because the kids appeared out of the woodwork and inhaled them before I could say “burgers ready” hah. 😀

So how’s that for stretching meat for burgers? Who can contribute to this conversation to make the next batch equally interesting but different?

See you in the comments.

36 thoughts on “Homemade burgers: stretching ground beef”

  4. Pingback: Homemade burgers: stretching ground beef – Site Title

  5. We eat way to much animal flesh in my clan, there are hoards of people, I throw out seared flesh and they leave me bones. I’m not a creative cook, I have about 8 solid recipes that I rotate, if you want innovative go to a restaurant. You can imagine the stories my children tell of their mother’s savvy in the kitchen? Hey, I’m a writer, not a sous chef. C

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  12. Pre Celiac diagnosis in the house, I used to use breadcrumbs and wheat germ to stretch the meat (along with lots of spices and herbs, plus egg).

    Now I use gluten free oat germ, ground flax, instant Quinoa flakes, or my favourite right now is hemp hearts. I do not tend to add pureed veg to burgers, but I do add it to meatloaf (and spaghetti and chili).

    I will need to try oatmeal – did you use quick oats or rolled oats?

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    1. I used large flake oats and ground them with the flax. I have used both quinoa and hemp hearts but the kids aren’t crazy for them. (I’m not either, TBH.) I do like both in other dishes, most baking or cereal toppers, just not as hamburger filler.

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    1. It was! And you can add whatever spices to make it unique to your taste.

      Other things you can use for filler is cooked beans of your choice (I mush them first), or of course breadcrumbs, rice or quinoa. Try a little the first time and adjust for next time. Good luck!

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  15. Themes: spices/toppings/etc that reflect a specific ethnic variation then served with sides (such as salads maybe) that also reflect that same culture? I’m actually wondering though, assuming you used 1 lb. of meat, what the difference might be in terms of overall meals if you had gone the loaf route versus the burger route? Assuming teens may not stop at 1 piece of a meatloaf then the overall result would likely still mean everything was consumed in that one meal? Clearly I’m trying to achieve an almost unlimited stretch and as you can imagine it’s been years since I had to feed teens 😉

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    1. I actually make meatloaf similarly. Sometimes I use rice to stretch meatloaf. Last week I used cauliflower.

      And yes I think spices can showcase certain ethnic cuisines… I’ve even seen some chefs place cheese in the center of homemade burgers. 😳

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      4. I’m a 1/4 Syrian..my grandmother had a grape vine and made stuffed grape leaves from scratch as well as kibbeh and baklava and halvah and tobouli 😁 but that’s definitely impressive making homemade phyllo

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