Did you know today is National Burger Day?

I didn’t until I started getting emails telling me it was National Burger Day. My first instinct was to raise an eyebrow and disbelieve that such a thing existed. But then I got several emails, from several PRs. Most of them were trying to get me to go and eat burgers at London burger restaurants that are very far from my house. So I looked it up.

Lo and behold, it has a website, so therefore it must absolutely be a REAL THING. I’m not sure how you get to have a National Day of Something. If I nominate next Thursday National Send Gemma £5 day, set up a website, and get enough PR people to send emails to meeja types telling them it’s National Send Gemma £5 day does that make it a thing, or is there some kind of “National Day” board that has to approve the day for inclusion in the National Day calendar?

Either way, instead of visiting any of the restaurants that have National Burger Day specials (which all seem suspiciously London based for a NATIONAL Burger Day), I decided that I would celebrate by inventing my own super tasty burger recipe.

So, in honour of National Burger Day, I present to you the Blueberry & Blue Cheese burger. I absolutely love a blue cheese burger.

I basically love blue cheese on anything, but the tangy blue cheese and sweet blueberries are bloody delicious together, so I recommend you immediately buy the ingredients and make this for your dinner tonight, y’know, seeing as it’s National Burger Day.

I served it with sweet potato wedges, but regular fries would work too if that’s your thing!

Ingredients

250g Mince (whichever you prefer. I have made this with pork and lamb, but beef would work just as well)
30g Dried Blueberries
50g Stilton Cheese
1 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
Mayonnaise
2 x Brioche Buns
300g of Sweet Potatoes
Rocket to garnish

How To

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees for a fan oven (200 degrees for a regular oven).

Cut the potatoes into wedges and add them to a baking tray with a drizzle of oil. Give the tray a bit of a shake, season with salt and pepper and put in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile….

Chop the blueberries finely (I just squish them up and chop) and crumble up the blue cheese.

Put the mince and blueberries into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper and mix together with your hands.

Divide the mince mixture into 2 and make into burger shapes.

Put some of the crumbled blue cheese (about a tablespoon) into the centre of each burger and fold the mince around it so the blue cheese is sealed in the centre.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil and fry the burgers for a couple of minutes each side until the outsides are just coloured. This will caramelise the blueberries a little and they can stick, so use a non stick pan if you have one.

When there is about 10-15 minutes left on the oven add the burgers to the baking tray for the remaining time to cook through.

Put the crumbled stilton and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar in a bowl and smoosh it all together till smooth. Add 2 tbsp of mayonnaise and mix. You want it like a really thick salad dressing consistency, so if it’s a little thick you can thin it out with little milk or sour cream if you have some. Put in the fridge till everything is ready.

Toast the burger buns by cutting them in half and putting them cut side down in a dry frying pan over a high heat for a couple of minutes.

Once the potato wedges are done put the burgers in the buns, top with a little blue cheese dressing and some rocket and drizzle the remaining blue cheese dressing over the potato wedges.

EAT!