Thyme Burger

Yesterday, I really needed a power boost. I’ve already written about the spicy potatoes; the minced beef I’d bought earlier was meant to be the excuse for making them. I made a burger — I hadn’t had one in quite a while, not sure if that’s a good thing 😉 A little different from usual, because it was intensely thyme-flavoured.

A beautiful bush of thyme has grown in my “garden”, and I can safely say I have more than enough. Interestingly, the basil has also grown beautifully, and it’s just one I bought at Lidl. It’s almost half a metre tall now and waiting to become pesto.

Back to the burger: an interesting flavour. The thyme comes through very strongly, highlighted by a sharp but only subtle note of mustard, and finally offset — hehehe — by the gentle, almost creamy aroma of excellent Cambozola.

All right, if you don’t believe me… I ate two. Believe me now? Highly recommended. :p

At a glance:

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Serves: the meat in this recipe makes two burgers

How many calories: blessed are those who don’t count their beef

Ingredients for a slightly different burger:

• 300 grams of minced beef (I have a fairly reliable butcher, so I didn’t even ask which cut it came from; pretty much any cut, then)
• 20 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 slices of Cambozola cheese
• 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

How to make a burger with thyme and Cambozola:

I put the minced beef into a medium bowl. I stripped all the leaves from about 20 freshly picked sprigs of thyme — yes, you need plenty — into the bowl with the meat. I seasoned fairly generously with freshly ground black pepper. I added two teaspoons of Dijon mustard and mixed, first with a spoon. Then two pinches of salt, and another stir with the spoon.

I set it aside for 5 minutes. Then I heated my electric grill, the one I’d just bought for cooking burgers, to its highest setting. I kneaded the meat thoroughly again by hand and divided it in two. I shaped each half into a patty about 10–12 cm across, not too thick, and put them on the grill. I cooked them for about 6–7 minutes on each side, adding a fairly thin slice of my favourite blue cheese, Cambozola, towards the end of cooking the second side so it would soften.

Once the burger was cooked, I gently spread the softened cheese over the whole top of the patty with a butter knife. The thyme burger is ready. I served it with fiendishly spicy potatoes and fresh spinach, simply blanched. The dish is ready. Enjoy!