Ingredients
BURGER MIX
2 medium red onions
olive oil
6 Jacob’s crackers or 4 slices of bread, crusts removed
500g quality lean minced beef
1 large free-range egg
30g Parmesan cheese
SPICY MAYO
2 teaspoons low-fat mayonnaise, made with free-range eggs
2 teaspoons fat-free natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon tomato ketchup
a good pinch of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper
½ a lemon
TO SERVE
6 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
6 large or 18 small burger buns
1 soft round lettuce
4 tomatoes
6 gherkins
a few pickled chillies
Method
- You can make these burgers or sliders in an oven at full whack, on the barbecue or in a hot pan. If you’re using the oven or barbecue, preheat it now.
- Peel and finely chop the onions. Put a splash of olive oil into a large frying pan on a low heat and add your onions. Fry for 10 minutes or until the onions have softened, then put to one side to cool completely.
- Blitz your crackers or bread (remove the crusts first) in a food processor until you get a fine consistency. Oil a clean baking tray and put aside.
- Put the cooled onions into a large bowl with the rest of the burger ingredients. Use clean hands to scrunch the mixture together really well, then divide into 6 equal balls for burgers and 18 equal balls for sliders.
- Wet your hands and roll the balls into burger-shaped patties about 2cm thick. Place your burgers or sliders on the oiled baking tray and pat with a little olive oil. Cover them with clingfilm and put the tray into the fridge for at least an hour, or until the patties firm up.
- This is a good time to make your spicy mayo, so put mayo, yoghurt, ketchup and smoked paprika into a bowl, squeeze in the lemon juice, mix well and put to one side.
- If using a frying pan or griddle pan, put it on a high heat now and let it get really hot. However you decide to cook your burgers, they’ll want around 3 or 4 minutes per side – you may have to cook them in batches if your pan isn’t big enough.
- When your burgers or sliders are nearly cooked on one side, add the rashers of bacon – whichever way you’re cooking them – then flip the burgers and cook the bacon until golden and crisp.
- When the burgers are cooked to your liking and it’s all looking really good, halve your burger buns and warm them through. Put the bacon on a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
- Click off the lettuce leaves, wash and spin dry. Slice the tomatoes and gherkins.
- When everything comes together, pop your burgers or sliders on to their buns, add all your lovely toppings and your spicy mayo (you know how to put a burger together!), then tuck in with a lovely fresh salad, baked potato or potato wedges.
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