Seriously Healthy

A few months back I wrote an article on burgers for NPR’s Kitchen Window and the editor, Bonny North, balked when I wanted to include my Bacon/Parmesan Pork Burger because it seemed so gratuitously high in fat and calories. She was partially correct, it is high in fat and calories, but not gratuitously — that’s purely a side-effect of producing an extraordinarily flavorful meat patty.

I offered a compromise: If I could keep the pork burger I’d develop a turkey burger to balance it out. That task proved more difficult than I’d anticipated. In my world “healthy” is never a substitute for “good.”

“Viola,” I had a low-fat, low-cal burger with plenty of flavor

I began with plain ground turkey to which I added an egg for binding because I knew before I started it would be inclined to fall apart. Even with salt and pepper it was bland and dry. I decided to move on to ingredients that emulated roast turkey by adding cornbread crumbs for additional binding, sage, and other typical turkey dinner seasonings. No joy. Edible, but by no means seriously good. Tweaking didn’t help.

I tried a couple of other ideas that were equally bad and then remembered a dish I make for clients on occasion — teriyaki-marinated turkey breasts. I’d already learned with my Marinated Greek Burgers that actually marinating the meat and then grinding it didn’t work. So I adjusted the marinade ingredients to make a seasoning to mix into the ground turkey. It was still a tad dry, so I added some zucchini for additional moisture, and, “viola,” I had a low-fat, low-cal burger with plenty of flavor. I found that onion rolls made a great bun (to keep the amount of bread reasonable I sliced out the middle third of the roll and saved it to make croutons).

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Teriyaki Turkey Burger
Serves 4.

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons frozen orange juice concentrate, melted
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons five-spice powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 egg

Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Form into 4 patties about 1/2-inch thick. Place patties on a baking sheet or plate, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour to allow burgers to set so they’ll hold together while cooking.

Cook in a non-stick pan over medium high heat.

Note: Even with the bread crumbs and egg for binding, these burgers tend to fall apart on a grill, so I recommend cooking them in a non-stick pan with a little bit of oil.

I’d still pick a Bacon/Parmesan Pork Burger, Greek Burger, or Lamb Burger Stuffed with Blue Cheese over this one if given a choice, but it’s not bad at all, in fact it’s actually good. But seriously good, according to my tastes, it’s not.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | burger | sandwich | turkey

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