Monday, May 10, 2010

More Dinner Makin's

More Dinner Makin’s

Okay, so in addition to our Mudammes, we made one of our favorite dinners. Mediterranean Turkey Burgers, as adapted from Cooking Light magazine.

Tangent: I really like Cooking Light. They have a lot of good recipes that are relatively easy, quick and full of flavor. I hardly ever find something in Cooking Light that I am disappointed with when I make it. I also like that the calorie counts and nutrition info is on every recipe, so even if they have a dessert or something I can easily see if it is something I can fit into my eating plan for that day or week, or if it will need to wait for another time. Many of their recipes are in the 300-400 calorie range, so perfect for someone like me that needs to stay within a 1200-1500 calorie range most days.

Anyway, Mediterranean Turkey Burgers are O M G good! I, of course, make them a little different every time, and some ways turn out better than others, but they are still magically delicious!

Start out with a pound of turkey. I buy the leanest turkey I can find, which does tend to be a bit drier when cooked than a higher fat content turkey, but in this recipe it hardly matters. Then to the turkey add:

½ cup panko bread crumbs
Couple tablespoons diced red onion (optional, if I have it great, if not, no biggie)
Four or five green or variety olives, chopped (also optional, they add awesome flavor, but no biggie if you don’t have them)
Couple teaspoons, or to taste, minced garlic
¼ cup feta cheese (I accidentally bought gorgonzola this last time, which is a little strong for my taste, but still delicious)
A couple tablespoons, or more, of homemade or store bought pesto. I use more and typically make homemade: just basil, garlic and olive oil in the food processor until smooth.



Add all this delicious goodness to the turkey and mix together.




Just use your (clean) hands and get in there and mix and smoosh it all together.

Once you have the smooshed turkey, form it into patties, round or oval depending on what you are serving the turkey patty on,



and then toss them on a hot grill or broil. I don’t know how long… 10 minutes or so, just until they are looking golden brown on the outside, are cooked through and the juices are clear. Don’t overcook them! They will be very dry if you do that.

Now in the past we have served this in a whole wheat pita with some mixed greens and tzatziki (homemade) sauce. They are very good this way, however, the pita sometimes falls apart, which I find annoying. Also, if you are using a pita it helps if you create the turkey patties in an oval shape, rather than round.

This time we bought some of those thin buns, the hamburger buns that are thinner than sandwich bread. I made homemade tzatziki sauce with 1 cup of Greek yogurt and ¼ cup finely diced cucumber with a small dash of cayenne pepper. Spread the tzatziki on the bun, add the turkey burger, and top with mixed greens, or this time I used arugula.

Eat and enjoy!

2 comments:

Shore said...

That looks nummers. Perhaps this will get me to eat Turkey again.

Corrie Beebe said...

Oh Shore, you should try these! I bet even Kevin would like them. They are very flavorful!