No-Bun Burger Recipe

Nick Cuadrado November 6, 2013

Fan of true dude food? We are, which is why we’re cooking our way through GQ Eats, the magazine’s new cookbook. Particularly the chapter titled Michelin-Starred Meals At Home. Between the hunks of meat, spectacular sides and cocktails we’d make by the pitcher, our takeout-ordering skills are getting rusty. We just learned not to wrap burgers in lettuce, because there are mushrooms in this world.

Nick Cuadrado’s no-bun burger uses Portobello mushrooms instead of bread, extra lean beef and a super tasty relish to great effect — with a fraction of the fat found in a normal burger.

Reprinted with permission from GQ Eats

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 imnutes
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

Relish

2 shallots, finely diced
2 large gherkins, finely diced
4 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and finely diced
3/4 ounce chives, finely chopped
1 small chili, finely chopped

Tomato and mustard ketchup

3 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tomato, diced
1 teaspoon honey

Burgers

12 ounces finely minced feather or onglet steak
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil, for frying
4 portobello mushrooms, trimmed
little gem heart leaves
beef tomato, sliced
red onion, sliced
1 large gherkin, halved lengthways

Directions

For the relish:

 Mix together all the relish ingredients and set aside.

For the tomato and mustard ketchup:

Mix together all the ketchup ingredients and set aside.

For the burgers:

Season the mince with salt and pepper and knead it into 2 patties (2–3 inches) in diameter. A common mistake is to bind the mince with egg and breadcrumbs – doing this can seriously up your calorie intake.
Brush the base of a frying pan with olive oil and pan-fry each patty until pink in the middle, or until well done if you prefer. (Alternatively, grill them if you wish to avoid using the oil.)
Place the mushrooms in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper,  then roast in the oven at 400ºF for about  5 minutes or until they are cooked through, but still remaining juicy  and succulent.
Place two upturned mushrooms on each plate, then place a burger on top  of one of them. Pile the onion and tomato garnishes on top of the burgers, with the lettuce leaves on top. Spoon the relish over the lettuce leaves, add a dollop of the tomato and mustard ketchup, then top each pile with the second mushroom and half a gherkin.

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