Radish Burgers

This week we made radish burgers. It doesn’t sound good – but it is.

As happy vegetarians, this isn’t a recipe with a desperate try to mimic the taste and texture of a beef patty. It is definitely a very different texture to a normal burger, and somewhat messy. Think somewhere in the field of a well-held-together sloppy joe. But it’s delicious and full of flavor.

I started with this recipe but it ended up taking a turn somewhere in the middle and came out looking a lot different. It’s still delicious.

Ingredients:

-1/2 Daikon radish

-2 tsp salt

-1/2 onion

-2 cloves of garlic (to taste)

-1 to 2 tbsp gochujang (to taste)

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1 egg

Start by peeling then shredding the radish into tiny pieces. Mix in about 2 tsp salt and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Drain the daikon; I’ve found it easier to make patties if I leave in a bit of the liquid.

Chop up half an onion (and some of those green onions if you still have them left over from last week) and throw it in with the radish. With this type of recipe (which is very similar and could even replace the mandu filling), anything lying around can be chopped up to go in. I chopped up three cloves of garlic; that adds a lot of flavor, so add to taste (we like garlic a little too much). One or two spoonfuls of gochujang sauce replaces the Sriracha in the original recipe, and can get quite spicy, so again, add to taste. 

The recipe calls for bread crumbs, but I just broke up part of a loaf of the vegetable ciabatta (aim for about 1/2 cup worth) from our Gachi share and sprinkled it in along with one egg and mashed it all together.

Hand form patties and fry in a pan (we use olive oil) on low-medium heat. This feels a little like a sponge because there’s so much liquid, so I squeeze them out until they stick together. The patties are rather breakable, so I use the spatula to form the edges and am very careful during flipping.

We sautéed shiitake mushrooms for a topping and melted cheese on the hamburger buns. I wish we could find better hamburger buns in Korea, but we bought the only bun choice at Home Plus. These patties would also make a great sandwich with the Gachi bread. Steam some of that broccoli we got this week on the side and you’ve got a nice meal 🙂 

What’d you do with your radish this week?