My daughters are not big meat eaters, so when they were young kids and still living at home, I never made stuff like roast beef or beef stew or meatloaf. They just didn't want any of it.
They didn't even eat hamburgers.
We were basically a chicken and turkey family (including chicken and turkey burgers).
Also, I would make burgers out of all the vegetables I used for chicken soup, which I cooked more often than almost everything.
That was a kid favorite. They still talk about those burgers.
Recently I made some chicken soup because, well, it's been rainy and gloomy in my part of the world and soup is like magic to help get you in a good mood. I used the leftover vegetables for burgers, just for the two of us. Fabulous not-quite-meatless dinner. Of course you can make this a vegetarian meal with regular cooked vegetables not from soup!
CHICKEN SOUP BURGERS
8 cooked carrots, cut up
6 stalks cooked celery, cut up
2 cooked parsnips, cut up
1 large cooked onion, cut up
some sprigs of cooked dill
1 large egg
1/2 cup matzo meal
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
vegetable oil
Place the cooked vegetables and dill in a food processor and pulse to combine them and chop them into very fine pieces. Spoon the contents into a bowl. Add the egg, matzo meal and some salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly to combine the ingredients evenly. Shape portions of the mixture into patties about 1/2-inch thick. Heat about 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a crumb sizzle, add the patties, a few at a time, leaving space between them in the pan. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the patties for about 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels.
Makes about 12