Homemade burgers will be 'even juicier' if you add tablespoon of £1.80 kitchen ingredient
Nobody wants to tuck into a chewy, dry burger, but one staple ingredient can make your burgers much juicier - and even healthier too.
Summer is well and truly upon us, and one of the best dinners you can make when the weather is warm is a tasty burger. While it's easy enough to pick up a packet of burgers from the supermarket, it's also really easy to make your own at home.
However, there's nothing worse than biting into a burger only to find a dry, disappointing patty inside. A juicy burger sounds simple enough, yet it's one of the trickiest things to get right at home. Even when you follow a recipe to the letter, you can still end up with a burger that's flavourful but disappointingly short on that succulent, juicy bite.
From the smash method to getting the lean-to-fat ratio just right, many tried-and-tested techniques can help solve that problem.
But according to registered nutritionist and Senior Recipe Development Manager at recipe box service Green Chef, Lily Keeling, there is one surprising hack that can help make your burgers juicier while adding nutritional value, with minimal effort required.
She said: "Ground flaxseed is probably one of the last ingredients people would consider adding to burger or meatball mixture, but flaxseed can absorb and retain several times its weight in moisture making it perfect for creating a burger that's noticeably more juicy."
How to make your burgers juicier
If you want to add flaxseed to your burgers - which you can buy for £1.79 from Aldi - you'll need roughly one to one and a half tablespoons per 500g of mince. This should make roughly around four burgers.
Lily added: "The good news is you won’t end up with a burger that tastes weird or unusual. When used in a small amount, the flavour is barely noticeable."
To add flavour, you can add some garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper and an egg, and mix everything together before forming into patties.
Put them in the fridge until you're ready to cook them, which will help them to keep their structure as they cook. Then preheat a large frying pan for a few minutes on a high heat, turning it down slightly when you put the burgers in.
Use a spatula to lightly press them down, but not too much. Let them cook for around four minutes on each side, or longer if you like them well-done.
Let the burgers rest for a few minutes before adding them into a bun with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, cheese or anything else you prefer, and tuck in.
