I love finding new recipes to try, and I am loving Melissa Joulwan’s cookbook Well Fed 2! While flipping through the pages, I found something called the “SB & J Burger.” It’s a paleo version of a PB & J burger with sunflower butter instead of peanut butter and easy homemade “jelly.” I had heard of burgers with peanut butter before and always thought it sounded so weird, yet people seemed to love them. It didn’t appeal to me before, but the recipe in Well Fed 2 made it look and sound like something worth trying. Also, I have become much more of a burger person in the last year than I used to be. I think it’s because I used to think red meat in general was unhealthy and hardly ever ate it. I also think it’s because 100% grass fed beef burgers, which is what I eat now, taste better than other burgers.

Today, there was a leftover burger in the fridge, and I thought of this SB & J recipe that I’ve wanted to try for a while now. So, I pulled out my Well Fed 2 cookbook. The “jelly” consists of sliced strawberries, lemon juice, and ground ginger mixed together and heated in a sauce pan. I didn’t have strawberries, but I had blueberries, so I used those. The recipe also calls for sunflower seed butter or almond butter. I had an open jar of almond butter, so I used that. I made my jelly first and then heated up my burger in a pan. I put a romaine leaf on a plate, placed the burger on it, spooned on some almond butter, and then some blueberry jelly.

Yeah, it sounds odd. But the verdict? I was impressed. I liked it a lot. It was so good! I would definitely recommend trying it! Another great thing about this recipe is you can change it up and try different variations, such as using different berries or fruits, sunflower seed butter, and/or adding other complementary ingredients. Mmmmmm.

AB & J Burger for One

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup blueberries (either fresh or frozen would work)
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 burger patty
• 1 tablespoon almond butter (no sugar added)

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan, mix the blueberries, lemon juice, and ginger.
2. Heat up burger or, if uncooked, fully cook it as desired.
3. While the burger is cooking, heat the small sauce pan on medium-high. Sauté the berries until they’re very soft and syrupy. Allow to cool a bit.
4. My almond butter was very thin, so I skipped this step. If your seed or nut butter is thick and you want to thin it out, or you just want to warm it up: You can heat it up on medium in a small sauce pan on the stove, or in a small baking dish in the oven, preheated to 350, for a few minutes or until thinned out.
5. When the burger is ready, top it with 1 tablespoon of almond butter and the blueberry “jelly.”

I just made one of these for myself, but you could of course multiply it for more burgers. As previously mentioned, this recipe was inspired by The Clothes Make the Girl’s recipe, which I may try as written next time. This would involve sunflower seed butter, strawberries, and scallions on top. Or I may try a different variation. I’ll let you know what I make and how it turns out! Comment and let me know what you try too!