Just Beet It! Smokey Beet Burger with Creamy Blue Cheese Spread

One of the most meaningful takeaways from the Intro to Nutrition class I just completed was just how significantly diet affects every single chronic disease that Americans are suffering from at ever increasing rates.  The resulting socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes are far more serious than most realize or care to acknowledge.  While I’m not going to go into detail on the impact of food insecurity on nutrition and chronic disease, I’ll be happy to share the paper I wrote on the topic with anyone who may be interested.  What I actually want to talk about today is the health benefits of replacing a couple of meat-based meals each week with (delicious!) vegetarian alternatives.

On average, vegetarians tend to maintain a healthier body weight, are at a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, have lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and have lower rates of hypertension, heart disease and certain types of cancer than non-vegetarians.  This is in large due to the fact that plant-based diets contain not just less fat, but healthier sources of fat; they are low in saturated and trans fats, instead offering heart-healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.  Additionally, fruits, vegetables and whole grains are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals and fiber, which prevent against the same chronic diseases for which saturated and trans fats are risk factors.

Believe it or not, I’m not advocating that you become a vegetarian.  I tried it for a month, and it was terrible.  I loved the food, but I didn’t have enough energy and felt weak and shaky during workouts.  And this was with an incredibly protein rich diet that had a wide variety of nutrients.  I genuinely don’t think vegetarianism is for everyone.  What I do think, however, is that most of us could benefit from eating less meat.  We can achieve many of the same benefits from eating vegetarian say, 50% of the time.  Assuming you skip meat at breakfast (which you should!  Breakfast meats are usually highly processed and full of saturated fat, and there are many much better sources of protein such as eggs and Greek yogurt), all this means is replacing meat with a vegetarian alternative at either lunch or dinner, 4-5 days a week.  This doesn’t mean eating a salad, or rice and beans.  These beet burgers are just one of many delicious and nutrient rich options.  (I have an entire archive of them!)

Back to the beet burgers.  Beets aren’t just delicious, they’re a good source or folate, potassium, and vitamin C.  Beets, lentils and brown rice are all an excellent source of fiber, which lowers cholesterol, protects against heart-disease and stabilizes blood sugar.  Beets and lentils are also both good sources of iron.  Finally, the cashews aren’t just an excellent source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, but are also rich in copper, which is an antioxidant and is essential to iron metabolism, and magnesium, which is essential to healthy bones.

If this is way more than you wanted to know about these beet burgers, let me telly you this: you will love the smokiness of the paprika paired with the the nuttiness of the cashews and the slight pungency of the blue cheese.  The rice, lentils and nuts make for a rich and complex texture that can’t be beet (not a typo!).  And last but not least, please don’t call 911 if the contents of your toilet bowl are red.  That’s called beeturia.

Smokey Beet Burger with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, very roughly chopped
• 1 cup cashews
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup grated beets
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup cooked green lentils
• 1 egg
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 8 buns (I use whole grain sandwich thins.  Pitas would also be nice)
• 1 ripe avocado

Blue Cheese Spread:

• 4-6 oz blue cheese
• 1/4 cup fat free greek yogurt
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 2 T light sour cream
• few grinds fresh ground pepper

How-to:

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes until soft and translucent.
2. Add the cashews, raisins, beets, garlic and paprika and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and pulse a few times until chunky. Put the mixture in a large bowl and stir in the salt, pepper and half the lentils.
3. In the food processor (no need to wash) pulse the other half of the lentils, egg and rice together a few times to make a coarse puree.  Add into the bowl with the first mixture and mix well.
4. Wet your hands slightly and form into 8 patties.  Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.  Flip and bake another 15 minutes.
6. Make the blue cheese spread by mixing all ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
7. Toast the buns/pita.  Serve beet burgers topped with blue cheese and avocado.

8 Servings

Johanna