Vegan meaty beetroot burger with cashew cheese

INGREDIENTS (8 burgers):

Burger ingredients (step 1):

• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 beetroot
• 350g frozen soy mince (meat free mince)
• 3 tsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp smoked paprika powder
• 2 tsp BBQ seasoning (make sure it's vegan)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube
• 1 small tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1 small glass of red wine (optional)

Burger ingredients (step 2):

• 3/4 cup of bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup of gram flour (chickpea flour)

Cashew cheese:

• 3/4 cup cashew nuts
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tso extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Other ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes
• Salad
• Ketchup or tomato relish
• Buns or bread rolls

METHOD:

Step 1: finely chop up the onion (I am using my food processor as it's quicker) and then finely grate the beetroot (again my food processor did me a great service there, otherwise just use a manual grater - and if you don't have one then just chop finely).

Start frying the mince and chopped onion in a pan with some oil and then add all other step 1 ingredients and cook until the flavours develop nicely (it shouldn't be too moist as you will otherwise need more of the breadcrumbs and gram flour).

Step 2: Put the mixture into a large bowl and add the other ingredients from step 2. Mix them together first with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until you get a dough like consistency. It's a messy process but fun at the same time. Once you are done take a bit of the mixture, form a ball and then push it flat with the palm of your hand to create a burger shape. Make sure the burgers aren't too thick as they would take too long to cook. Pour a generous amount of oil into a griddle pan (or any normal pan will do as well) and fry until they are crispy on both sides and thoroughly cooked on the inside (I also fried a portobello mushroom in the pan in the picture above because I wanted to add it to the burger but I realised I was overdoing it, so I left it out in this recipe).

While they are frying in the pan put all cashew cheese ingredients into a small powerful blender and blend well until you get a smooth texture (my Kenwood Smoothie 2Go does the perfect job).

Once the burgers are fried serve in a bun with a slice of tomato, salad, ketchup or relish and the cashew cheese on top. You are ready to roll! Enjoy!