Indian-Spiced Beet Veggie Burgers with Lemon-Dill Yogurt Sauce are incredibly nutritious veggie burgers and are loaded with flavor. Top these tasty veggie burgers with avocado and sprouts for a delicious meal.
This recipe for beet burgers was one of my first blog posts back when I was blogging as a hobby. They continue to be the only beet burger I have ever made because they’re just so dern good.
Although I crave beef burgers more frequently than I crave beet burgers, I had a uuuge hankering for these the other day. So I changed up my original recipe just a tad and doubled it so that I could share it with friends.
There are so many things that are right with these burgers.
They are spiced to perfection (but not spicy, mind you), have a nice crispy exterior with a soft interior, and they hold together real nice, just like a good veggie burger should.
Made entirely of raw beets, rice, and spices, these burgers are gluten-free, egg-free, and are squeaky clean. To keep the burgers vegan, you can skip the lemon-dill yogurt sauce.
If you’ve never tried to make beet burgers, I surely recommend it! They do take a hot minute to prepare, and you do need a food processor for optimal results.
Normally, I’d recommend using a high-powered blender to replace a food processor in many recipes, but I don’t think it’d work in this case. Just food for thought.
Here’s how it all works out:
You snag yourself a large beet (or two medium beets). Peel it, chop it, throw it into your food processor, and pulse until it looks like this:
Add cooked rice, spices, garlic, and turn your food processor on.
You’ll need to stop your food processor and stir every once in a while.
Keep going until the beet and rice looks like…well…ground beef. This will take multiple rounds of starting, stopping, and stirring.
Form veggie patties using palm-sized amounts of the burger mixture. Note that the mixture should hold together very well, so making patties should be a cinch.
For best results, cook the patties in coconut oil (or high-temperature oil of choice) in a cast iron skillet. The result should be crispy, yet sqooshy, yet so burgerlicious you won’t know what hit you!
The yogurt dill sauce, though, people. So good and simple! The burgers don’t necessarily need a sauce because they are plenty flavorful in their Indian-spiced splendor.
But the sauce is a nice little perk if I do say so, myself. It kinda adds a zesty-cool element that makes you go, “mmhmm, mkay, I get it. I can dig.”
Let’s go bun-less by making a lettuce wrap using butter lettuce, green leaf lettuce, or collard greens. We can save the bun carbs for beer carbs, ya feel?
Top the burgers with yogurt sauce, thick slices of avocado, and some fresh sprouts. Finger licking good.
Quit beet-ing around the bush and make these already!
Indian-Spiced Beet Burgers with Lemon-Dill Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
Indian-Spiced Beet Burgers:
- 1 large red beet peeled and shredded (3 cups)
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon dill
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
- 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- ¼ cup coconut oil for cooking
Lemon-Dill Yogurt Sauce:
For Serving:
- Butter Lettuce
- 1 large avocado sliced
- Sprouts
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for the lemon-dill yogurt sauce in a small bowl. Stir well and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Wash, peel, and chop 1 large (or 2 medium) beet. Place in a food processor and pulse into small rice-sized pieces. Measure out 3 cups of grated beet and save the rest for other recipes.
- Add the rice, yellow curry powder, cumin, turmeric, dill, salt, and garlic. Turn your food processor on and process until thick and sticky (you will need to stop and stir the mixture several times).
- Add enough oil to a cast iron skillet to generously coat the surface and heat to medium.
- Form burger patties out of the beet/rice mixture and place on the hot cast iron skillet. Allow patties to cook 2 to 3 minutes (or until crispy). Carefully flip to the other side and allow them to cook another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Serve beet burgers on lettuce of choice with lemon-dill yogurt sauce, thick slices of avocado, and sprouts.
Nutrition
More Veggie Burger Recipes:
- Berkeley Veggie Burger from Cooking Light
- Southwest Veggie Burgers with Black Bean and Corn Salsa from The Roasted Root
- Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers from The Roasted Root
- Avocado Bean Burgers from Hummusapien
- Vegan Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers from Making Thyme for Health
- Chickpea Mushroom Burgers with Mustard Green Pesto from Dishing Up the Dirt
- Spicy Black Bean, Quinoa, and Sweet Potato Burgers from Eats Well With Others
I need more beet burgers in my life. Also, I have the urge to bust out in song. Beat it should totally be this recipe’s theme song. Pinned.
These are beautiful! I have eaten a lot of veggie burgers in my day, but never a beet burger! They look and sound delicious!
I’ll admit beets were scary to me for a looong time (like those ones from the school cafeteria that were all gross and floating in water, nope!). But beet burgers have been my FAV veggie burger for a while now, yeah!
Oh yeah, canned beets and any sort of floaty-beet situation freaks me out, too. Just can’t do em. Hope you try these burgz, m’dear!
You had me at Indian-spiced. And then again at beet. And one more time at burger. Basically, I’m in love with these. I don’t veggie burger nearly enough at home
I haven’t eaten meat in over 6 years yet I’ve never tried a beet or bean burger. I’ve never been inspired to try them, but this post changed that. I have a food processor and all the ingredients, so today for lunch beet burgers it is.
As a meat-a-saurus, I have to say that I really do love me a good veggie burger! This looks FAB. I mean, the color alone is just awesome and that lemony-dilly-yogurty sauce. Well, just give me a straw so I can drink it up! Slurp.
I LOVE beets and I’m totally digging this beet burger! It looks like it’s worth the hot minute to prepare. I agree – let’s ditch the buns and save all our carbs for beer! 🙂
how in the world did i not see this recipe prior today. thank you for sharing this.
Maaaaw thank you, sister! I think you’d love these burgs!
Yeah! I love beet burgers! I especially love freaking people out by taking a big old mouthful of uncooked burger mix, which looks shockingly like raw beef. I’ve got my own version, but I’m gonna try these for a beet burger showdown!
I need to hop on this beet burger bandwagon with you! Indian spices are totally my jam…I feel like they make 99% of things in life better. Even beets, which are already pretty dang tasty.
THES.ARE.THE.PURTIEST!! I’ll take ten atop your massaged kale avocado salad followed by a beet muffin for dessert please and thanks.
Do you need to roast the beets for this recipe or do you use them raw?
You leave them raw 🙂
All the flavors in these beet burger patties sound so delicious – not to mention the pretty pink hue! I love the contrast with the lemon dill sauce and sprouts too! Jaw on floor. Pinning to remember to make these!
As a fellow beet lover this sounds absolutely amazing! I’m currently making a grocery list so I can come home and make these for dinna! Also your blog name is too cute!
Sounds fantastic. Something new to try. Thanks.
Simon
How well do these freeze ( cooked or uncooked)
Hi Sarah, the patties will freeze just fine, both cooked and uncooked. To be sure the patties stay together once you pull them out of the freezer, I’d probably cook them first. Let me know if you try it out!
These didn’t come out right for me…the burger was more like a pancake because the mixture didn’t stick together. Can you clarify the ratio of beets to brown rice? I’m a little confused by the recipe / ingredient list
Hi Shannon! I’m so sorry to hear that! It should be 3 cups of shredded beet and 2 cups of cooked brown rice. Let me know if you have any other questions xo.
Has anyone tried to put these on a grill? I would love to make them alongside beef burgers as a vegetarian option
Hi Katelyn!
I haven’t tried it myself. In my experience, these burgers break apart fairly easily so I’d be concerned they would crumble through the grate. Perhaps if you’re very careful, it may work, but I honestly wouldn’t try it myself. Hope you enjoy the beet burgers! xoxo