In Boulder, there was a spot downtown that we’d frequent all.the.time for lunch or a casual supper that made the most delicious beet burgers. I never got around to trying my hand at them at home, because any time I had a chance to zip down the hill on our Vespa and enjoy my lunch al fresco on an inevitably sunny Colorado afternoon (and someone else was doing the cooking) I was going to take it.
Fast forward a couple of years and I’ve yet to find a place in San Francisco Santa Barbara that has a beet burger on their menu. I guess I understand….beets, after all, seem to be a pretty polarizing root veggie, and I may be in the minority in the fact that these days I almost always default to a ‘veggie’ burger option when given the option.*
*And that is not to say I won’t absolutely-but-only-occasionally crush a double-double-animal-style. Cause I’d be a liar if I said otherwise.
But this isn’t really a beet burger so much as just a really awesome veggie burger. Yes, you can taste the beets – their earthy sweetness cuts straight through the other more mild binding components – but when combined with brown rice, lentils, chopped onion, fennel, and just a bit of almond butter, their in-your-face dirt-y-ness is mellowed out and complimented juuuuust right.
E A T & R E L I S H 