8 of the best barbecue burger recipes

Burgers are versatile little things, sure, but sometimes there’s no need to mess with a classic. Matthew Tomkinson’s beef burger has lots of nice little touches – a homemade stilton rarebit, burger sauce and chunky chips on the side – but his beef patty is the crown jewel of this recipe. He mixes his beef mince with Worcestershire sauce, anchovy sauce, garlic, onion and parsley before shaping his patties and chilling them to firm up. Get them onto a raging hot barbecue to get some colour on either side, and finish them over indirect heat for a bit of extra smoke. The perfect beef burger.

Francesco Mazzei’s gorgeous lamb burger is perfect for a hot day around the barbecue. His patty is a mixture of lamb and pork mince, mixed with parsley, shallot, mint and seasoning, before being barbecued and adorned with slices of pancetta and Caciocavallo cheese. You can use the hot coals to roast your aubergine too, before blending into an aubergine purée which you can slather over your toasted burger bun. The result is rich, fatty and luxurious – exactly as a lamb burger should be.

Venison’s rich, gamey flavour holds up really well alongside a whole host of different flavours, and makes it a good, lean alternative to beef. Josh Eggleton makes his burger with coriander, parsley, cumin, garlic and onion, quick-pickling cucumber slices as garnish. His double-cooked chips are straightforward and delicious, and easy to make whilst your patties are chilling in the fridge. Finish your burgers on the barbecue, and serve in a nice toasted bun.

Veggie burgers can be very hit or miss, so why not make your own instead? Jacqueline Meldrum’s vegan burgers eschew eggs in favour of potatoes, lentils and oats to help bind the patty together. They’re simple to make too; just cook your lentils and mushrooms, then blitz, mash all the ingredients together and shape into patties in the fridge before charring them on the barbecue. Because the filling doesn’t need to be cooked, you can have these as raw or cooked through as you like, before popping them in a toasted brioche bun and serving with your choice of condiments.

Richard Corrigan’s rump steak and peppered bone marrow recipe is about as decadent a burger as you’ll find anywhere. Chopping the steak by hand gives your burger a little more texture, and you can mix in any leftover bone marrow as well as onion and marjoram before chilling in the fridge. As for the bone marrow itself, this is a very simple and delicious way of preparing it – just chill it in the fridge, then slice it into rounds and dust each one with cracked black pepper before caramelising quickly in a hot pan. Richard toasts his burger bun in the pan too, before filling with the rump steak, bone marrow and a lick of mayonnaise.

Nisha Thomas makes her pork burgers with a decidedly Asian influence – making the patties with a base of garlic, ginger and spring onion, and pairing them with a teriyaki glaze and sriracha mayonnaise – but this recipe is a great blueprint for you to make whatever pork burger you fancy. She mixes her mince with the rest of her ingredients and leaves the whole lot to marinate for an hour, before shaping, chilling and finishing on a hot barbecue. It really is as simple as that.

Not strictly a burger, but certainly more than welcome inside a bap, Ben Tish’s grilled mushrooms are a super-simple vegetarian barbecue alternative. He takes meaty mushrooms – king oyster, portobello or porcini – and leaves them in a marinade of dark soy sauce, garlic and rosemary before patting them dry and sticking them on the barbecue. After five minutes of direct cooking the mushrooms should be nearly cooked through – Ben finishes them on the indirect side of the barbecue with extra butter before serving.

It might seem intimidating, but ox heart is delicious, cheap and not all that difficult to deal with on a barbecue. Yes, you’ll need to order in in advance from your butcher, and it’ll need some trimming up to get rid of any bits of fat or gristle, but you’re left with a beautiful piece of meat that’s almost indistinguishable from steak. Helen Graves cooks her ox heart hot and fast over coals, and stuffs the slices in a sandwich with a punchy salsa verde for maximum impact.