Head & Paws · The Head & Paws Kitchen

The Doggy Burger & Wedges

Name: The Doggy Burger & Wedges
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: One batch: 280 g raw edible ingredients, plus water. Cooking changes the weight: weigh the whole cooled batch. It makes several treat portions, not one complete dinner; the number depends on your dog’s allowance.
Ingredients: 100 g plain lean beef mince (5% fat); 100 g peeled potato; 50 g carrot; 30 g green beans, ends removed; 50 ml water, plus enough for boiling or poaching

Would you like that with extra tail wags?

The Doggy Burger & Wedges — Illustrative cooked batch; divide before serving. — Illustrative cooked batch; divide before serving.

What we’re making

A little bun-free beef burger with soft, oil-free potato wedges and vegetables. The burger shape is for the cook: break the cooked serving into bite-sized pieces before offering it.

An occasional treat, not a complete everyday meal. For allergies, illness or a prescribed diet, check with your veterinary team before cooking.

Preparation: 15 min · Cooking: 50 min · Total: 65 min

One batch: 280 g raw edible ingredients, plus water. Cooking changes the weight: weigh the whole cooled batch. It makes several treat portions, not one complete dinner; the number depends on your dog’s allowance.

What you’ll need

Ingredients

Weights are raw edible weights, after peeling or trimming. Use plain, unseasoned ingredients. No added oil, butter, milk, salt or stock.

100 g plain lean beef mince (5% fat)
100 g peeled potato
50 g carrot
30 g green beans, ends removed
50 ml water, plus enough for boiling or poaching

Equipment

Digital kitchen scales, separate raw-food board and knife, clean food thermometer, spoon, plate and shallow storage containers. Saucepan with lid and sieve for the vegetables. Oven, baking tray, baking paper and lidded non-stick frying pan.

A little prep first

Wash and weigh the vegetables first. An adult cuts the peeled potato into narrow wedges and carrot into 5 mm pieces, then chops the green beans. Keep raw beef mince and its utensils separate from the vegetables and cooked food.

Wash hands, utensils and surfaces, and keep raw ingredients away from cooked food. Fully thaw frozen beef mince in the fridge before you begin. Peel potatoes and discard green or sprouting ones. Use a clean thermometer for doneness; cooking times are a guide.

Use plain beef mince with 5% fat where available. No packaged seasoned burgers, onion, garlic, cheese, ketchup or barbecue sauce. Minced meat needs thorough cooking all the way through; do not serve a rare centre.

Let’s get cooking!

Soften the wedges
Heat the oven to 190°C conventional / 170°C fan (375°F / 340°F fan). Cut potato into narrow wedges and boil 12–15 minutes until very soft.
Into the oven
Illustrated cooking stage — An adult puts soft boiled potato wedges onto a paper-lined baking tray without oil.
Odie: “A miniature burger. Full-sized standards.”
Put on baking paper and bake about 10 minutes without oil; avoid a hard crust.
Cook the vegetables
Cook carrot and chopped green beans separately in water until soft, about 10–12 minutes.
Shape and cook the burgers
Illustrated cooking stage — An adult shapes two thin plain beef patties on a meat-only board, with vegetables in separate bowls.
Make your mini burgers: shape the 100 g mince into two thin patties, about 1 cm thick. In a non-stick pan, cook over medium heat with the 50 ml water, covered, about 5–7 minutes each side.
Add water if the pan dries.
Check the centres
Illustrated cooking stage — An adult checks the centre of a cooked beef patty with a food thermometer.
Odie: “A tidy kitchen. A promising dinner.”
Check both patties in the centre: 75°C for at least 30 seconds (167°F). Continue cooking if needed; colour alone is not proof.
Drain fat, cool and crumble the measured portion. Soft wedges and vegetables complete the plate, without a bun or sauce.

Cool it down, then dish up

A little cooled burger portion is crumbled beside soft potato, carrot and green beans; no bun or sauce. Odie and Finn appear as separate cartoon portraits, away from the cooking. — **Illustrated cooking stage** — A little cooled burger portion is crumbled beside soft potato, carrot and green beans; no bun or sauce.
Finn: “I’m told the bun isn’t on the menu.”

The burger shape is for presentation, not for swallowing whole! Crumble the measured cooked patty, then mash or cut the soft wedges and chop the carrot and beans smaller. Cool everything to room temperature. The rest of the batch goes into storage, not onto the plate. Mix the batch evenly before weighing your allowance, or take the same small fraction of each component. An adult serves in a quiet space. Put the untouched rest away promptly — it is not an invitation for second helpings.

Little Kitchen Helpers

Fancy being today’s little kitchen helper?

Your job can be weighing the washed vegetables and choosing a fun arrangement. After the grown-up has cooked, crumbled, portioned and completely cooled the burger, help put the soft vegetables on the little plate.

A quick note for the grown-ups

Match tasks to your child’s age, ability and confidence, with active adult supervision. Wash hands before and after. Adults handle raw meat and fish, knives, heat, hot food and cleaning. Keep dogs outside the cooking area; an adult checks and serves the portion, then everyone gives the dog space to eat. Children should not hand-feed.

The grown-up stays in charge of raw ingredients, knives, heat and serving. Wash hands and let the dog eat undisturbed.

Small-dog portions

Make a batch, serve a little. Use the worksheet to work out the remaining treat allowance, then weigh that amount from the evenly mixed, cooled food. Start with a tiny taste if an ingredient is new. The picture shows a batch to divide, not one dog’s recommended serving.

Whole cooled batch
Weigh your allowance
Cut into little bites

A method illustration, not a scale drawing or a recommended quantity. The worksheet determines the amount.

Finn: “Small dog. Small plate. Very large appetite.”

These are occasional treats, not complete meals. All extras together should generally stay within 10% of daily calories, counted within the daily allowance, with at least 90% from complete food. Needs vary: use your dog’s feeding plan and the label-based worksheet, not plate size or weight alone.

Your portion worksheet

Use kcal (food Calories), not kJ. Sum each ingredient’s grams × its label kcal per 100 g ÷ 100 to estimate the batch energy. Include every ingredient and count all treats already given today. This is an estimate, not a prescription; if a label is missing, use a verified food-composition entry matching the ingredient and preparation or ask your veterinary team.

Illustrations only: a dog on 200 kcal/day has at most 20 kcal for all extras; on 600 kcal/day, 60 kcal; on 1,200 kcal/day, 120 kcal. These may suit some small, medium or large dogs respectively, but are not weight-based feeding recommendations. Any other treats reduce this budget.

Without JavaScript: remaining kcal = max(0, daily kcal × 0.10 − other extras). Maximum grams = remaining kcal × cooled batch grams ÷ batch kcal, capped at the batch weight. This is an upper limit, not a target.

Save some for another day

Separate untouched leftovers into shallow containers promptly. Cool and refrigerate within 1–2 hours at 5°C or below; use within 48 hours of cooking. Freeze small labelled portions promptly at −18°C; aim to use within one month for quality. Defrost in the fridge and use within 24 hours of full thawing. Reheat only once until steaming hot throughout (for a thermometer check, 70°C for 2 minutes), stir and cool the serving again. Never serve hot. Discard food left in the dog’s bowl, food kept at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or leftovers with uncertain storage; smell is not a reliable safety check.

Nutrition, suitability & ingredient swaps

Ingredient substitutions

Plain lean lamb mince can make lamb patties, but it is often fattier than 5% beef. Follow the lamb guidance in Shepherd’s Pie, drain fat, check 75°C for 30 seconds and recalculate calories; this is not suitable as an assumed low-fat swap. Soft carrot may replace green beans by weight. Do not replace plain mince with a seasoned ready-made burger. Recalculate batch energy after any change. Introduce new ingredients gradually; for allergies, digestive illness or a prescribed diet, check the feeding plan with your veterinary team first.

Nutrition & portions

This recipe is not complete and balanced. Keep the usual complete diet as the foundation; treats and extras together should generally supply no more than 10% of daily calories. Count extras within the daily total and reduce the usual ration by their calories, keeping at least 90% from complete food. Age, activity, body condition, medical needs and existing food all affect the allowance. A larger “special meal” needs a veterinary feeding plan rather than simply replacing a whole bowl of complete food.

We have not measured cooked yield or established a verified calorie value for this recipe. Fat content, labels and moisture loss vary, so no fixed grams-per-dog serving or calorie claim is given. Use the label-based portion worksheet below; if you cannot establish the calories, keep this to a tiny taste and ask your veterinary team for a suitable allowance.

For a healthy dog who tolerates the ingredients. Dogs with allergies, pancreatitis, digestive or kidney disease, prescribed diets, and puppies with particular nutritional needs may need individual veterinary advice before trying it. No onion, garlic, chives, leeks, grapes, raisins, xylitol or cooked bones. If poisoning is suspected, contact a vet promptly.

Feeding & food suitability

Feeding & food suitability · Food lookup

Evidence & editorial notes

Recipes are editorial adaptations informed by the sources below. They have not been independently cooked, taste-tested or clinically validated. Images are AI-generated serving illustrations, not photographs of tested recipes; they show a batch to divide, not a recommended serving.