This scrumptious burger is not what it seems. Mushrooms, peppers, and onions run through the meat to give a decadent taste that you may have never experienced before. The rich flavors of vegetables mixed with the savory flavors of the spices come together at a beautiful medium, giving you a delicious burger!

You might be thinking that mushrooms is a terrible idea to put in burgers, but they’re really awesome. They absorb flavors really well, meaning they will absorb a lot of the fats and juices that the burger releases, taking on a similar taste. They add an earthy quality which gives off that rich umami flavor profile which is needed in all savory foods. In fact, there are some chefs that add mushrooms to their ground beef and nobody knows the difference, except for the fact that the flavor is bar none.

So, I give you The Omnivore Burger. A burger that is not only rich in meat, but rich in vegetables and flavor. You must give this one a try – seriously! I topped mine with a red chili and soy sauce ketchup that I mixed up and it complimented the flavors very well. Play around and see what you can come up with.

Keep in mind that the internal steam of the burger will cause it to rise in size. If you don’t like a massive burger, make your patties smaller and thinner. I love my burgers to be huge, juicy, and full of flavor – so isn’t a big deal to me. I just wanted to point that out for anyone that misses the flimsy fast food burgers that are dwarfed in the palm of your hand!

If you want to bring the fat content up on these and bring the protein down, then it’s pretty simple. Only have 1 patty as your serving and serve with your favorite cheese on top of the burger.

Yields 4 Servings of 1 ½ Omnivore Burger with Creamed Spinach & Roasted Almond Side Salad

The Preparation

The Burger

2 pounds ground beef

ground beef 2 cups (200 g) sliced mushrooms

sliced mushrooms ½ medium onion

onion ½ medium yellow bell pepper

yellow bell pepper 1 tablespoon Tone’s Southwest Chipotle Seasoning

Tone’s Southwest Chipotle Seasoning 2 ½ teaspoons salt

salt 2 teaspoons cumin

cumin 1 teaspoon pepper

pepper 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

The Side Salad

5 cups raw spinach

raw spinach 1/3 cup roasted almonds

roasted almonds 2 tablespoons cream cheese

cream cheese 1 tablespoon heavy cream

heavy cream 1 tablespoon butter

butter 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

red pepper flakes Pinch of pepper

of pepper Pinch of salt

The Execution

1. Preheat your oven to 450 Convection mode, or 475 regular bake. Convection is the preferred method here and my timings may be off a little bit for baking.

2. Add 200g (about 2 cups) sliced mushrooms to a food processor.

3. Pulse the mushrooms until they are finely diced.

4. Measure out your meat in a large mixing bowl.

5. Add your mushrooms.

6. Add all spices except the cumin to your mix and mix it well. Make sure all the mushrooms and spices are well distributed in the meat.

7. In your food processor, pulse 1/2 Onion and 1/2 Bell Pepper until finely diced.

8. Add your onion and bell pepper to the meat mixture and add your cumin to that. Mix it well so that everything is incorporated.

9. Find a baking sheet and cover it with foil.

10. Pout about 1/4 Cup Salt over the baking sheet so that it can absorb the grease that drips off the burger. This will stop any smoke from happening when the grease burns.

11. Form 6 burger patties from the meat. You should have a little bit of meat left over – save it.

12. Place your 6 patties on a cooling rack and position it over the salt on the baking sheet. Put this in the oven for 19-22 minutes on convection, or 20-25 minutes on bake. Watch them closely when they get to their timer because it can overcook quickly.

13. In a pan, add your remaining meat.

14. Let it cook down and brown some.

15. Add your spinach to the pan with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Let the spinach wilt down.

16. Add your roasted almonds and cook for a minute or two.

17. Add your butter, cream cheese, and heavy cream to the pan and stir it into the spinach.

18. Continue to stir the creamed spinach and then let it sit in the pan warm on lowest heat.

19. Take your burgers out of the oven. They should have a nice browning on the tops.

20. Serve plated portions of 1 1/2 patty and 1/4 of the creamed spinach.

The macros per serving are: 562 Calories, 38.5g Fats, 4.8g Net Carbs, and 45.3g Protein. If you want to lower the protein and bring up the fat content, just serve your favorite cheese on top of 1 patty and do not serve the 1/2 patty as part of the serving.

Omnivore Burger with Creamed Spinach and Roasted Almonds Calories Fats (g) Carbs (g) Fiber (g) Net Carbs (g) Protein (g) 2 Pounds Ground Beef 1621 103 0 0 0 160 200g ( ~2 Cups ) Sliced Mushrooms 30 0 5 2 3 4 1/2 Onion 23 0 6 4 5 1 1/2 Bell Pepper 12 0 3 1 2 1 5 Cups Raw Spinach 35 1 5 3 2 4 1/3 Cup Roasted Almonds 250 23 7 4 3 8 2 Tbsp. Cream Cheese 100 10 1 0 1 2 1 Tbsp. Heavy Cream 50 5 0.8 0 0.8 0 1 Tbsp. Butter 100 11 0 0 0 0 1 Tbsp. Tone’s Southwest Chipotle Seasoning 5 0 0.5 0 0.5 0 2 tsp. Cumin 16 1 2 1 1 1 2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes 5 0 1 0 1 0 Totals 2247 154 31.3 15 19.3 181 Per Serving ( /4 ) 561.8 38.5 7.8 3.8 4.8 45.3