The ultimate veggie cheese burger

This is a cheats guide to a proper tasty burger. It’s not a total cheat as you do have to do a little prep, but I’ve used a shop-bought burger to save quite a bit of time. I think we’re all looking for easy solutions right now and if you can make tasty food, without too much effort then that’s a big win.

I promised the kids that I’d make burgers for lunch this week, which meant beef for my son Zak and veggie for the rest of us. The best ‘meat-style’ burger I’ve found is the Sainsbury’s Plant Pioneers Ultimate, which is a thicker soya-based pattie that’s really nice and succulent. Of course you could always make you own from vegetables/beans/rice - that’s a recipe I need to work on!

In our family, the secret to a good burger is the following ingredients (stacked in this order):

• Brioche bun, cut in half and warmed in a 50ºc oven for 5 minutes while the cheese melts.

• Tomato chutney, my recipe here

• Plant Pioneers Ultimate Burger or other veggie or beef burger

• Melted cheese, place a slice/s (gouda or cheddar) over over the almost cooked burger in the frying pan, add 1 tbsp of water and put the lid on. The cheese will melt over perfectly in 2-3 minutes.

• Fried red onions, browned/slightly crispy

• Pickled gerkin or cucumber slices

• Gem lettuce leaves, one or two leaves on top of the pattie

• Dijon mustard and or mayo, a scrape of both on the top bun

I like to serve with homemade chips - Maris Piper or sweet potato and spicy mayo - mix Sriracha hot sauce with ordinary mayo using a ratio of about 1:4 - depends how hot you like it!