Greek Inspired Turkey Burgers
Summertime = fast fun healthy food. And burgers always fit the bill. These burgers are inspired by the super healthy Greek spice oregano, with garlic and onions, topped with tzatziki (not dairy free), tomato and sliced green olives. My recipe includes a trick to make these burgers extra yummy – see recipe! These burgers are also delicious topped with hummus and sprinkled with some nutritional yeast in place of the tzatziki – so YUM – and then they are dairy free (they do contain an egg to bind the delicious ingredients)!
A trick I do is that I sauté the onions and the garlic instead of putting them in the recipe raw. I find it enhances the flavour of these two wonderful healthy nutritious spicy veggies and elevates the flavour of the burger!
Oregano is a good antibacterial and helps fight infection. It is an antioxidant to fight the free radical cell damage in our bodies, a source of fiber, VitK, VitE, manganese, iron and calcium! If you grow your own, only use the leaves as the stems are not easily digested so best avoided.
I try to sneak extra nutrition into every recipe! In these burgers it’s some grated carrot that gets lost in the burger but packs great nutrition in every bite!
Meal Planning Alert: Double the recipe to make extra as leftover burgers are great to have in the fridge for a quick lunch or cut up in a salad or in a wrap, wonderful heated up or eaten cold.
As always, when you make this recipe, please post a photo of your Greek Inspired Turkey Burgers goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 15 minutes / Cook time: 30 minutes / Makes: 4 -5 Burgers
Ingredients:
3 Cloves Garlic - minced
4 Tablespoon Olive Oil (divided for the garlic and for cooking the burgers)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley – or ½ cup fresh parsley chopped fine
1½ teaspoon Dried Oregano – or ¼ cup fresh oregano – chopped fine
1 teaspoon Cumin
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne
1/2 teaspoon veggie bouillon powder – optional
1/3 Cup Grated Carrot
½ Large Cooking Onion – chopped fine
1 Pound Ground Turkey
¾ Cup Bread Crumbs - Gluten Free or Regular
Herbamare (or Sea Salt) and freshly ground black pepper
How It’s Made
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Mince your garlic and let it sit in a bit of olive oil as you gather and prepare the rest of your ingredients. This allows the active ingredients in the garlic to work their nutritional magic!
In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and sauté 1 minute more. Set aside.
To a medium bowl, add the egg, spices, grated carrot and, when cool, the onion and garlic. Mix together with a fork.
Add the ground turkey and the bread crumbs. Season to your taste with Herbamare (about ¼ teaspoon) and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Mix everything together until well combined.
Make 4 or 5 burgers of equal size. Squeeze them to compact them as much as possible.
In a stove-to-oven pan or a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, put the burgers into the pan to brown them well on one side then the other side – about 5 minutes per side.
If you use a stove-to-oven pan, put the pan into the oven to finish cooking the burgers. They will need about 20 more minutes. If you used a frying pan, line a baking pan with parchment paper, transfer the burgers to the lined pan and put the pan into the oven to cook the burgers for another 20 minutes.
Test to make sure the burgers are cooked through by cutting into one, there should be no pink at all, or best to test with a meat thermometer. It must register 165°F.
When done, you can build your burger! We like ours with greens on the bottom, the burger, tzatziki sauce (or hummus and some nutritional yeast, which is optional but so healthful), tomato slices and sliced green olives. Serve!
Enjoy!
