He is a growing boy....look how he is shooting up.....

Cooking for 'growing boys' is challenging(to put it mildly). They are forever hungry and want something interesting to eat. Unless you can match their pace you will have them reaching for junk.

While Burgers get classified as junk food, it is quite simple to convert that into a healthy, wholesome anytime meal. Buy good quality wholewheat buns, stuff with vegetable cutlets( tons of veggies, a little bit of oil) and there you go.

It works as a one dish meal and you could team it with a soup/fresh juice depending on the time of the day and season of the year.

Veggie Burger

Ingredients(Makes four burgers)

Burger Buns: 2 per person ( if you have boys budget for a few more)

Potatoes: 2/3 large sized, boiled

Mixed vegetables: 1 cup( finely chop carrots, beans and boil them along with some green peas)

Paneer: 100 grams, grated

Bread: 1/2 slices

Pepper: 1 tsp

Jeera powder: 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Cheese slice(optional): One per burger

Mayonnaise(optional): 1 tsp per burger

Method

To make the cutlet

Mash the potatoes, add the boiled vegetables, grated paneer, salt, pepper, jeera powder, bread slices and mix well to make a firm dough.

Shape the dough into big, round balls and then flatten them. They need to be the size( in terms of their diameter, pardon the technical jargon) of the buns that you plan to use.

Putting it all together

Halve the burger buns( horizontally). The ones I bought today had already been halved( some clever thinking I must say). Toast them lightly. You could spread some mayo on them(optional), layer a slice of cheese over the lower half(again optional, most kids love it), place the cutlet over it. Cover with the other half of the bun.

Serve with some tomato ketchup.

We had ours for dinner along with a salad and some soup.

Burger also makes a good lunch box option. Kids are quite happy eating it cold. My suggestion would be to skip the cheese slice else you would end up with a gooey mess. Make the cutlet from the night before so that all of you have to do is assemble the burger in the morning.

A good way to sneak a lot of vegetables in. Looks delicious and easy finger food( even your five year old can polish it in a jiffy).

You could keep varying the filling: aloo tikki( potato cutlets) one day, chicken nuggets on another, mince chops the third time etc.

Just about anything can be mashed into a cutlet( even leftover rajma mixed with some boiled potatoes) and turned into a burger. As long as you stay with the burger disguise, kids are sure to love it.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

P.S: The ketchup art is courtesy my older son. Cooking with kids is even more fun than cooking for kids. Cheers!