Easy homemade burgers for kids

Name: Easy homemade burgers
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 5 tbsp mayonnaise; 2 tbsp tomato ketchup; 1 tbsp sweet pickle relish; 1 tbsp finely chopped shallot; 700 g steak mince; ¾ tsp garlic powder; ¾ tsp sea salt; ¼ tsp black pepper; 4 cheese slices; 4 burger buns; 4 lettuce leaves (romaine); 1 large beefsteak tomato cut into 4 slices

Homemade burgers are an easy dinner for kids to help with. This simple recipe, is full of flavour and the perfect dish for all the family.

These easy homemade burgers are a great recipe for kids to try. They’re much easier than you think to make and once you’ve made your own you’ll not want shop bought ones anymore.

This recipe is about as simple as it comes. It uses some simple beef mince with a little seasoning. There’s no egg or breadcrumbs, as they can bind together without that. And when you’re making something with kids, keeping things simple, is really important.

In the summer they’d work perfectly on a BBQ so they’re a great, or you can quickly cook them on the hob making them a delicious all year round dish.

How can kids help make homemade burgers?

This is a great easy burger recipe for kids. There are a lot of things little kids can get involved in with this dish from preparing and moulding the burgers to making the sauce. And they should enjoy eating them as well!

If your kids like getting their hands messy in the kitchen these burgers are perfect. They can help mix everything together with their hands and squeeze the beef together to form the burger patties.

Not all kids like messy hands, so if forming the burgers isn’t for you, your kids can still help make the dressing. You don’t need to be too precise with your measurements which is great for little kids and toddlers.

How do you bind burgers together with no egg?

This recipe doesn’t need egg to bind the burgers together. As long as you don’t use very lean meat you shouldn’t have any problem getting the burgers to stick together.

Why do homemade burgers fall apart?

If you use too lean a meat your burger might fall apart when you cook it. A little bit of fat (20%+) will help your burger stick together. You also want to be careful if you’re adding liquid flavours like soy sauce or worcestershire sauce. They might add some lovely flavour but they’ll also make your burgers more moist and more likely to fall apart.

When we keep it simple we don’t seem to have a problem making the burgers stick. A burger press can also help as it really presses them together evenly in a way that’s hard to do with your hands.

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 20 minutes + 15 minutes cooking/assembling

Ingredients

For the sauce
5 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp sweet pickle relish
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot

For the burgers
700g steak mince
¾ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
4 cheese slices
4 burger buns
lettuce leaves (romaine)
1 large beefsteak tomato cut into 4 slices

how to make easy homemade burgers

Mix the sauce ingredients together

Get your kids to help you measure the mayonnaise (5 tbsp), ketchup (2 tbsp), relish (1 tbsp) into a bowl. Add the shallot and mix together. Set aside for later.

Make the burger patties

Add the mince to a bowl, then get your toddler to help you measure the seasoning: ¾ tsp garlic powder, ¾ tsp salt, ¾ tsp pepper.

Using your hands, mix everything together then form 4 -6 patties of equal size (depending how big you want them). We’ve got a burger press so the kids enjoyed using that. If you don’t have one just press them together using your hands. Press your thumb or use a spoon to make a small indent in the middle of each of the patties to make sure they don’t form a dome when you cook them.

Cook your burger patties

Grill, fry or BBQ your burger patties on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Turn them once so they brown on each side.

Add a slice of cheese on top of each burger for the last minute or so of cooking so it melts a bit.

Toast the buns.

Build your easy homemade burgers

Put your burgers together on the buns with the sauce, lettuce leaf, and tomato.

Serve and enjoy!