Burger of the month: April

I just miss a bit of creative romping around, so I just decided to make a great burger for my blog every month. Of course, the recipe now looks quite complex with all the components, but they can all be prepared well if you want to start the day before or swap for purchased ingredients. I wanted to make a burger that really tastes like spring and that's what turned out to be this one. Made with handmade buns with dried tomatoes, delicious wild garlic pesto with a slight note of lime, crunchy rocket salad, fresh tomato sugo, beef patty with an Italian touch and deep-fried "mozzarella".

Duration: around 5 hours

Difficulty: medium

Makes 6 burgers

Ingredients:

"Mozarella"

90g cashew nuts

200g water

3g salt

3g yeast flakes

15g lemon juice

15g ground psyllium husks

60g flour

110g plant milk (I recommend soy)

3g yeast flakes

2g paprika

3g salt

Pinch of marjoram

breadcrumbs

Oil for frying

Pesto

50g wild garlic

200g almonds

15g garlic (2-3 cloves)

100g rapeseed oil

75g olive oil

10g salt

15g yeast flakes

Half a lime peel

Pinch of pepper

Bun

100g plant milk (I recommend soy)

30g flour

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary (optional)

21g fresh yeast (1/2 cube)

215g plant milk (I recommend soy)

40g sugar

425g flour

20g olive oil

10g salt

50g semi-dried tomatoes

Tomato sugo

15g olive oil

100g chopped onion

5g minced garlic (1 clove)

500g cherry tomatoes

50g semi-dried tomatoes

15g sugar

1g paprika

2g salt

Pinch of pepper & oregano

Patties

550g purchased vegan mince

40g Italian frozen herbs

50g semi-dried tomatoes

8g salt

Pinch of pepper

Preparation:

What you start with doesn't really matter. I started with the "Mozarella" because it should sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour. For this I weighed the cashew nuts with the water, salt, lemon juice and yeast flakes together and pureed them with a hand blender.

I put the resulting liquid together with the psyllium husks in a blender and mixed it as smoothly as possible. You will probably have to scrape and push the sides back down more often so that everything thickens evenly through the psyllium husks.

When you have mixed a smooth, thick mass, spread it in a heap on some baking paper and then roll it up into a cylinder, which can then rest in the refrigerator and become even firmer.

Next comes the pesto so that it can pull through a little and the aroma develops better. Pesto should be made in a mortar if possible, as the blades give off heat in a mixer and thus have a negative effect on the taste. But to be honest, I don't really care, I'm lazy and this pesto still tastes great from the mixer. ;)

If you harvest fresh wild garlic, wash it off carefully and then pat it as dry as possible with a little kitchen roll.

Then just put all the ingredients in your blender and mix the pesto until your desired consistency is reached.

You can of course vary the salt content a little or use a few pine nuts instead of almonds, but I can only advise you not to leave out the lime peel, as it brings a great note to the pesto that takes the wild garlic some of its penetrance and sharpness.

Then it is the turn of the buns.

Since I only recently dealt with Tangzhong, we also use the technique for the buns, as they can absorb even more moisture and become even more fluffy.

To do this, we mix plant milk with flour and, optionally, a little rosemary, and then boil the mixture, stirring constantly.

The "pudding" that is created, you just let it cool while you concentrate on the remaining ingredients, the main thing is that Tangzhong does not get hot into the remaining dough and thus kills the yeast.

I have already added the rosemary at this point, as the heat helps the rosemary to infuse its aroma into the mix.

In a bowl you can mix the yeast with the sugar and the rest of the warm, not hot, vegetable milk.

Then add the flour, olive oil, salt and the cooled Tangzhong. If it still has a little bit of residual heat, that's ok.

But it shouldn't be hot anymore, otherwise it could kill the yeast.

knead the dough with a machine for about 8-10 minutes.

It takes a lot longer by hand and you will probably need around 20-25 minutes. The dough will still be relatively moist and sticky at the end, but that is also intended so that the starch has more liquid to absorb later during baking and the bread becomes extra fluffy.

If you absolutely cannot handle the dough, you can of course still add a little flour little by little until you get a smooth dough and can make a "gluten window". If you can separate a small part of the dough and pull it apart with your fingers until it becomes very thin, almost transparent like a "window", without tearing directly, then the gluten in the dough has developed well enough.

Now chop the half-dried tomatoes into small pieces and knead them into your dough. Then the dough can rise in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for about 1 hour in a warm place until its volume has roughly doubled.

While the dough is rising, you can already prepare the sauce, which should simmer for as long as possible.

To do this, just chop the onions and garlic and braise them a little in the olive oil.

Then add the whole, washed cherry tomatoes and let them simmer over low heat for about an hour.

At the end, add the remaining spices and the dried tomatoes and this incredibly delicious sauce is ready.

Since the sugo simmering by itself and only has to be stirred occasionally, it is now time to make the patties.

I made it relatively easy for myself and just bought vegan mince, which is now available in almost every supermarket, and refined it with Italian herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Then I formed 6 patties out of it, which were allowed to rest in the refrigerator until they were fried.

The dough should have risen properly in the meantime and can now be divided into 6 buns of the same size and then shaped.

The dough pieces can then rise again for 45 minutes in a warm place, covered, until their volume has roughly doubled.

Then you can preheat the oven to 150 ° C, brush the buns with a little olive oil and optionally sprinkle with some chopped rosemary. They are then baked in the oven for about 15 minutes until they have a nice color.

Then really only one ingredient is missing. The "mozzarella" should now be hardened enough to be able to cut it into 6 equal pieces with a dampened knife.

For the breading, mix the "milk" with the flour and the spices and then turn the slices first in the liquid breading and then in the breadcrumbs.

You can also press the individual slices a little flatter so that they are better distributed on the burger later.

Theoretically, building a burger can now begin. I washed some rocket lettuce, cut tomatoes into thin slices and some red onion into fine strips.

To heat the buns you can either cut them in half and briefly put them in the oven or you can "butter" one side and toast it with this side down in a pan.

The buns should already feel wonderfully fluffy and have a delicious crumb. When the buns are ready, you can wipe the pan and keep it hot to fry the patties in it. You should let your deep fryer or a pot with oil for deep frying get hot.

Then it is occupied. Some of the sugo below, some pesto above. Followed by arugula on both halves and a little bit of the onions below.

In a pan you fry the patties in a little oil while you top the buns and then put them on the lower half.

Now comes the "mozzarella". It doesn't take too long in the hot oil. It should just turn a nice golden brown on the outside.

With that, the burger of the month April is already ready. I hope it tastes just as springtime to you as it does to me.

Guten Appetit!

And doesn't this fried "mozzarella" look fantastic?

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ding experience and because I deeply believe, that vegan recipes should be accesible to anyone.ecipes. Thank you for your interest in plantbased recipes. 💜