Pizza Burgers

The 2019 Blended Burger Contest

The Blenditarian project of The Mushroom Council partnered with Bon Appetit Magazine in May for the 2019 Blended Burger Contest. This contest features a mission to promote featuring more plants in our meals, instead of basing our recipes solely on meat. The contest was open to home chefs, where the original burger creation needed to consist of at least 25% mushrooms (to 75% meat.)

My husband and I both love mushrooms, and we almost always have some in the refrigerator. Coming up with original burger creations that featured mushrooms as a primary ingredient sounded like a fun challenge. The bonus would have been to win the $25,000 prize, but we figured, either way, we could eat burgers. We were in!

(When you are done reading my recipe here, don’t forget to check out the recipe for his contest entry – Mushroom Fritter Burgers!)

The contest allowed one entry per person, so we each brainstormed our ideas to come up with our own “perfect” burger. For mine, I went to the grocery store and snagged some fresh baby portobello mushrooms and pepperoni, and swung by our local butcher for some local ground pork.

The Pizza Burger Entry

For my entry in the contest, I made a Pizza Burger with ground pork, pepperoni, baby portobello mushrooms, provolone cheese, baby spinach, and marinara sauce – served on a homemade pizza dough bun. This burger is a delicious combination of two of everyone’s favorites – pizza and burgers!

 

I actually made two versions of mine, the second version being the one I submitted for entry and am outlining in the recipe below. The difference was in how I made the dough/bun.

Pizza Burger: Version #1

For my first version, I made the dough and rolled it out kind of like calzone dough. Then, I wrapped the burger up inside the dough and baked it.  These were good but messy to eat and we decided perhaps a bit too far from the “burger” theme.

Pizza Burger: Version #2

For my second version, I used the same dough recipe (we literally use this Skinnytaste bagel dough recipe for SO many things, you guys, though I did adapt it in this use to get more of a “bun” consistency.) For the second version, I used the same dough recipe but instead made it into buns. When they were done, I decided the buns made a nicer presentation and looked more contest-worthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the first version and for the buns in the second version, I baked them in the oven at 425 on a baking sheet.  For the second version, I cooked the burgers in my 12-inch cast iron pan. Another necessary kitchen item used was our kitchen scale, to make sure I got the ratio of meat to mushrooms accurate per the contest rules.

We served my pizza burger with a garden salad and some extra marinara sauce on the side.

If you make it, please let me know in the comments how you liked it!

The Winner

Entries for the contest were due by May 31.  There ended up being 389 entries, and the contest winner was just announced on July 10.

You can read the press release here about the winning burger, which was a Thai-inspired creation that sounds delicious. Congratulations to the winning chef!