Smoky Butternut Squash Burger

Burgers are delicious little things, everyone loves a good burger. And with “everyone” I mean everyone! It doesn’t matter which diet you choose to follow, how old you are or where you live. The fundamental character of a burger is what makes it so appealing to many people: first of all, you always know what to expect when ordering a burger. In most cases, there will be a bun, some kind of patty and of course, toppings. But: although we are all familiar with the basic elements of a burger, there is a lot of room for versatility! And that’s where it’s getting exciting. Well, for me at least. 😀

Depending on which choices you make regarding the bun, the patty and your toppings, I am sure that you can live a full life of eating burgers without ever eating the same kind (If that’s what you’re going for…).

There are a lot of people who think that the veggie option of a typically meat-containing dish is not the real thing and therefore do not often stray from, let’s say, the basic burger (which is also delicious). If you’re happy with that, that’s obviously ok. But: I think you are missing out on something. In my opinion, it is very important to try new things all the time, even if you’re usually happy with the food of your choice. There are so many things out there, which we don’t know of, flavours your taste buds have never felt and combinations that can raise your eyebrows and make your eyes go big as soon as you take a bite or a sip. Don’t take the chance of never experiencing that by sticking to the things you know. They’ll always be there for you to go back to if you don’t like something you tried. But some opportunities to try new stuff may not return, so always go for it! 😀 (Don’t go for it if it’s a strange looking mushroom in the woods that you don’t know…)

For those of you, who still think that veggies are a miscast for the role of meat, there is some magic stuff: spices. For me, there lies the major difference between eating and indulgence. Even though an unseasoned meal can fill your stomach, it cannot replete or satisfy you completely. (Maybe it’s missing some emotional aspect?) And because I enjoy trying special ingredients, I chose a Danish smoked salt for this recipe, which gives the burger a great smoky aroma.

These are the ingredients you will need:

4 Burger Buns

½ middle sized (or 1 small) Butternut Squash

2 cloves of garlic

1 Egg

Some flour

Some fresh parsley

Freshly ground Pepper

1 teaspoon of smoked salt

Some oil

Toppings:

pickled cucumber, sliced

1 red onion, cut into rings

Feta cheese

Sriracha Mayonnaise

First, we grate the squash and press the garlic. In a middle sized bowl, mix the squash, garlic, the egg and a tablespoon of flour (depending on how juicy your squash is, you can add more or less; the idea is to prevent the mixture from drowning in juice, you can also squeeze some of it out before adding the flour). Chop the parsley finely (amount depending on your taste) and add to the squash mixture. You can also add other herbs if you like, preferably fresh ones, to give you a nice flavor boost. Now we season the mixture with a bit of pepper – I strongly recommend freshly ground black pepper, I insist, it makes a huge difference! And now we add a teaspoon of smoked salt and mix everything well.

Next, we are going to form our patties! You can use the picture below as a reference for the size. Don’t make them too big or they might fall apart when you´re frying them. My squash yielded more than 4 patties, so we ate the rest as a side dish the next day (they go well with salad, rice, etc). Fry your squash-patties from both sides in a hot pan with some oil until they’re slightly browned. Put them on a paper towel-covered plate so the excess oil can be absorbed.

Now it’s time to put our burger together! Depending on your taste, you can toast the buns a little bit beforehand. I covered the bottom half of each bun with feta cheese and put it in the oven for some minutes until the cheese was slightly melted.

Put the patty on top of the cheese and let your creativity run wild with the toppings! I topped my burger with rings of red onion, sliced pickles, some more smoked salt and a bit of Sriracha Mayo.

The salt gives the burger a nice, full-bodied aroma – in my opinion it can keep pace with the competition at any barbecue!

Have fun trying the recipe and I hope you’ll like this burger as much as I do!