Recipe: Easy Peasy Cheesy Burgers for the Barbecue

The weekend weather forecast was pretty good so we decided to drag our trusty ‘Outback’ from the garage and have our first barbecue of the season. Home made ‘easy peasy cheesy burgers’ would be the main attraction.

THE SHOP

I chose to shop for the ingredients at our local Morrisons in Clevedon as I had limited time before the school pick up. I’m glad I did as the staff there were super friendly and I had no problem finding everything I needed. 

The mince on the meat counter was more expensive than I wanted for making my burgers, so Andy, the fresh fish and meat manager, took me over and pointed out these packs which he explained were the best value but still good quality. In fact with the “I’m cheaper” promotion (which they’ve just applied to thousands of products), my mince only cost £3.50 per kilo which I think is an absolute bargain!

Next stop burger buns. At this point I have a bone to pick with Morrisons for making me completely over-cater on the bread front. There’s such a ridiculously huge range and those cheesy baps just seemed to leap into my trolley! Oh, and the burger buns happened to be on BOGOF too so another bonus.

BARBECUE DAY

The following day was barbecue day and I suspect I might have stumbled into a parallel universe. The sun was shining and our garden was a hive of activity – even the big boys had detached themselves from Minecraft – voluntarily!! 

My eldest busied himself putting some new garden chairs together. . .

. . and I discovered mini man round the corner honing his photography skills.

Bubble wanted to help me prepare the food so we used this funky little book, appropriately called “The Burger” and combined elements from a couple of recipes to design our very own burger.

EASY PEASY CHEESY BURGERS

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 4 adults and 3 hungry children)

• 1 kilo fresh beef mince – £3.50
• a little stilton cheese – 45p
• a little cheddar cheese – 25p
• one onion very finely chopped – 10p
• seasoning if required
• your choice of  healthy salad ingredients for topping
• large vine tomato, thinly sliced – 20p
• ¼ cucumber – 12p
• few lettuce leaves – 6p
• 2 sliced, fried red onions – 20p
• 7 Burger Buns – 63p

OUR METHOD

• Put the mince in a bowl with the finely chopped onion and seasoning and mix ingredients together gently with your hands.
• Divide into balls – one for each person.
• Split each ball into 2 halves and press each one into a burger shape, making them quite flat.

• Add little pieces of your preferred cheese to the centre of one of your patties – stilton is perfect as the taste comes through.
  (In case you’re wondering what the green bits are, I did originally add fresh coriander, but I don’t think it real added anything to the taste due to the long cooking time, so I’m omitting that)

• Place the other half on top, gently squeezing the edges together to seal them.
• Hand the whole lot to your husband with instructions to avoid turning them any more than is strictly necessary and to remember which burgers contain Stilton so your children don’t think you’re trying to poison them
• 

Sweet potato also works really well on the barbecue. I slice it and spritz a little oil on. They also take about 30 mins to cook through.

• While everything is cooking, look on as your family enjoys playing catch. You will obviously be busy at this point washing and chopping the salad ingredients, carrying about a hundred things out to the table and maybe taking photographs!

• Make sure at least one of your children is wearing a Minecraft T-shirt as you wouldn’t wanted them to forget about it for a whole day.

• Husband, (who has had quite a lot of practice on the BBQ front), will hand the burgers back to you less than 30 minutes later, cooked thoroughly and to perfection, ready for the addition of  healthy salad ingredients and fried onion if required. If you can adjust the temperature of your barbecue, cook over a very low heat for as long as it takes to ensure they are cooked thoroughly. About 30 minutes should do it. If your barbecue doesn’t have a low setting you might be safer cooking them inside.

• Customise your burger and enjoy!

They were absolutely delicious and very little effort to make.

COSTINGS

When I did the calculations I was pleasantly surprised at how how little each portion cost, especially as there were so many lovely fresh ingredients.

Each burger and bun with fillings costs approximately 79p.

At £1.19 per kilo, the whole sweet potato I used came to 41p – or about 6p per person.

I managed to buy plenty of fresh produce at competitive prices and I’m such a sucker for a bargain. If you fancy trying this easy recipe, please make sure the food is cooked thoroughly. Enjoy!