Homemade Hamburgers

Spring is in the air and I just want to barbeque! There is nothing better than a grilled burger in summer. I know you can buy premade burgers from the grocery store, but they are just never as good as homemade. I find they're thin and always too small for a hamburger bun. My mom always made homemade hamburgers growing up and I saw how easy they were and way cheaper than buying them. They also tasted amazing. I adapted what I've seen my mom do to make these amazing burgers.

We don't have a barbeque at our current rental, so pan frying these burgers will have to do until we get back to Winnipeg. These may be my favorite burgers ever. Like better than fast food and a fancy restaurant. I don't know what it is about them but I absolutely love them. They are so juicy, flavorful and good in a bun or on their own topped with tomatoes and avocados. This recipe makes a batch of 12 1/4lb burgers, so I usually make a few for dinner and then freeze the rest. They're great when I haven't thought of anything for dinner, I just pull them out, defrost them and throw them on a salad, in a bun, mashed up into pasta or just topped with some veggies. They're so versatile and my favorite thing to keep in the freezer!

Jason likes these in a bun, but I love them on their own over a bed of lettuce or in a lettuce wrap. I cut them up for Everly to have as well. We all love them and are great with sweet potato fries if you're craving fast food but want to keep it on the healthier side. My favorite way to eat them though is on a portobello mushroom with pesto and topped with a fried egg. I just use my vegan pesto (I usually have a few cubes in the freezer I can thaw out), but any pesto would do. I also top Jason's with cheese and both of ours with hot sauce. You can basically eat these burgers any way and they taste amazing! See how I make them below.

Homemade Hamburgers

Makes: 12 burgers

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
8 oz mushrooms, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsps dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1/2 cup quick oats
2 eggs
20 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt & pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
optional toppings: pesto, avocado, tomatoes, cheese, mustard, jalapenos, bacon, etc.

Instructions:

Put the olive oil, diced onions and mushrooms in a pan over medium/high heat. Cook down until onions are translucent and mushrooms release all of their water, ~10 minutes. Mix in minced garlic, thyme, salt & pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.
While that's cooking, put ground beef, oats, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder and salt & pepper in a bowl.
Let onion and mushroom mixture cool and then add to the ground beef mixture (you can put it in the freezer to cool quickly). Mix everything together until just combined, but don't overwork the meat.
Form into 12 patties.
At this point you can throw them on the grill or frying pan, or freeze for later. To freeze, put them on a baking sheet in the freezer until solid and then wrap each one individually in saran wrap and put in ziplock bags.
For my favorite way to serve, scrape out the inside of a portobello mushroom, then spread on pesto (recipe here) and a sprinkle of cheese. Broil for ~5 minutes. While that's broiling cook a sunny side up egg in a frying pan. Take the portobello mushroom out of the oven, top with a cooked burger, fried egg and a dash of hot sauce. It's perfect served with roasted sweet potato fries or a side salad.