Homemade low fat beef burger patties from SCRATCH!

When I cook, it tends to be quite experimental and when you experiment... it is fingers crossed all the way that it would turn out okay. I have had my fair share in experiments not turning out the way I want them to but we have to learn from our failures to succeed.. right? But hats off to those people on those competitive cooking shows where they think of successful recipes on the spot! I really admire their talent and creativity! Oh how I wish I could do that!

Today I decided to make burger patties from scratch. When I say from scratch, this means mincing my own meat! I haven't mentioned this yet but I am currently on the Dukan Diet the Consolidation stage. So I am always trying to find ways to make delicious meals that are low fat and low carb. One thing I usually have trouble is lean mince meat - it is always too dry when you want to make grilled burger patties or meatballs. Even baking results dry and cardboard-y texture that I am always forcing myself to eat it since it would be a waste. But this has not stopped me in experimenting and trying to achieve a decent low fat/low carb burger patty.

So instead of buying lean mince, I went out and bought some beef steaks (I think they were rump? I cannot remember) from Woolworths. Cut the outer fat, chopped it into chunks and threw them into the Thermomix. I love how my Thermomix can mince meat! But if you have a meat grinder (like me but never use it) or even a food processor - you could mince your own as well. But before all this meat landed in my Thermomix,  1/2 of a carrot, 2 cloves of garlic and a small onion were chopped first. The carrot and onion is to help give moisture to the burger patty (garlic was for flavour primarily). Then the meat was minced with those chopped veggies

Added some salt and pepper, mixed, mixed mixed. Shaped four beef patties (each patty roughly 100g worth of beef.. mmmm) and pan fried them on a nonstick pan.

Now it surprised me that my burger patties were brown already before they were cooked. I swear my steaks were red before! But I think it was due to the carrots? (hmm...)

Prepared my open burger (or open sandwich) - wholemeal bread, lean ham, tomato, cooked beef patty and cheddar cheese. Popped into grill for 5 minutes till cheese melted. 

Added salad and voila! Have to say the burger patties have been the best ones I made so far in regards to moisture - it wasn't dry and cardboard-y like past experiments. One thing that could be improved on was flavour - it was on more of the bland side. Cause I want to minimise my salt intake, I think I need to try and amp up the burger patty with a whole lot of herbs. Plus I might flatten my patty to increase its' overall surface area, therefore fit on the bread better. But overall I have to say this was a decent open burger/sandwich!

Till next time!
Andrea

Note: This burger patty is only appropriate for PV days since it has carrots in it. Remove the carrots and add a bit more onion should help do the trick. Though cannot guarantee that it would yield similar results to mine.