Flavorful Turkey Burger

My friend Beth and I were sitting on her front porch one evening talking about World Peace and other such important matters when the conversation naturally came around to food.

Like me, she is trying to work a variety of foods into her family’s diet, rather than eat the same old things. It is SO easy to get into a cooking rut. Trust me: I know.

At her request, I’m sharing this delicious recipe here so all of you have an opportunity to try it. 🙂

This is from my Food Lover’s Make It Paleo cookbook. If you have no idea what the Paleo diet is, just know that Paleo recipes are almost always very flavorful, and made from natural, whole-food products. They are usually also without sugar or grains.

If you like lots of flavor, you’ll like this recipe…and the simplicity of it! You can also use ground beef with this recipe. In the cookbook, it was served as an open-faced sandwich on a Portobello mushroom in the place of bread.

TURKEY BURGERS

1 lb. ground turkey or ground beef

Seasoning:

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. salt (I always use kosher salt in my recipes)

1 tsp. pepper

Mix together seasonings, and pour over ground turkey.

NOTE: If you’ve ever worked with ground turkey, you know it can be somewhat sticky. Just before I dive my hands into the meat to mix, I wash them and spray them with oil. This will make it much easier to make patties without half the meat sticking to your hands.

Form the meat into four equal-sized patties.

I also spray my grill grates before grilling any kind of meat; I even spray my spatula when working with turkey. Pam makes a spray oil just for grilling; your oil just needs to be able to endure high heat.

The recipe says: Grill turkey patties on high for about 5 minutes per side, flipping once.

If you know your grill, you know how much heat works best and where your “hot spot” is. I heat up the grill to about 300, and turn the heat to low, grilling them until the outside edges start to look a little white and there are grate marks clearly visible (which is about 5 minutes). Then, I turn them, watching them closely until there are visible grate marks and they look “done”.

If you cook them too long, they are still flavorful, just dry. It works best if you check them frequently and pull them just at the point they are done.

I can’t roller skate and chew gum at the same time, I don’t know why I ever thought I could multi-task while I was cooking. 😀 Enjoy!

Mine are served here with grilled zucchini and a lettuce wedge with homemade ranch dressing. YUM!