I can’t say that I ever intended this blog to be just about food, but its how its turning out of late!! I’d really like to share some other ideas and things that I’ve found lately, but I really want to make sure that I have research to back them up so that I don’t lead people up the garden path, because thats just not cool! But watch this space.
I had a request for these tasty burgers tonight. I’d made them initially about a week ago. I was inspired by a recipe that I’d seen made on a video on the Happy Yolks blog, but there was no recipe to accompany it. I believe it may be in their new book but they looked amazing! Its a lovely little video though. I love their work, their recipes and their stories of travel really get me wanting to get out and about exploring.
I’ve been back in the kitchen a lot lately, I’d lost my mojo there for a bit, but it is certainly back. 
These burgers are really moist with the apple. They hold together incredibly well given they don’t call for egg and brown up nicely with a bit of almond meal on the outside. You could use breadcrumbs if that is your thing, but the almond meal is almost as effective. It seems to be one of those quick recipes that really doesn’t take long to throw together. I make the burgers and put them in the pan to get going, then have plenty of time to throw the salad together while they’re cooking. I really love using turkey mince. I have a really scrumptious meatball recipe that I crack out every now and then as well, but I’ll save that one for another day.
I’ve said previously in another post that a lot of my recipes tend to be adaptations of others that I’ve found. Not copied, just used as inspiration and made to the way I like to cook. The turkey burger recipe came from Yummly which you can find if you click the link. I had to change it to the ingredients that I had in the cupboard a the time. We don’t keep hot sauce, so I made the chilli component with some dried spices that were in the cupboard. The salad that I made was inspired by one made by the beautiful Alice Nicholls over at The Whole Daily, but it came from the Savoury cook book that was included in the Life Transformation Project.
Apple + Turkey Burgers
500g turkey mince
1 small onion, diced finely
1 granny smith apple, grated
1 stick celery, finely diced
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
squeeze lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
season with salt and pepper
1 Tbsp cooking oil – I use coconut oil
4 Tbsp almond meal – separate, on a small plate
Get your hands in the bowl and really mix all of the ingredients together, this is not a recipe where a spoon is useful. Heat the oil on medium heat in a large non stick pan on a large burner. When the pan is hot, roll handful size portions of the mince mixture into a burger shape and press gently onto the almond meal to coat the top and bottom that will come in contact with the pan. This gives a nice fine crust and doesn’t taste like almond once cooked at all.
Now, you don’t want to fry the bejeezus out of these, turkey doesn’t take a lot of cooking like beef mince does. It’s a lot more delicate. You want a browned crust but you don’t want them to be charcoal, so turn the heat down to low-medium if you need to. Turn over when you can see the mince starting to turn a light brown up the sides of the burgers and flatten them out a little. They should be about 1.5cm thick roughly, a bit like a big rissole. The first side will take about 10 minutes. The second side doesn’t take quite as long to cook, maybe 5 minutes, so when browned on the bottom, they should be sweet to go. This mixture made 8 good sized burgers for me, I turned the oven onto the lowest setting and put the first batch on a plate in there until I was done.
If you’re a hamburger kind of person, the kind that loves the whole bun and fillings sort kind of garb, then this would work really well with say some beetroot or onion relish, some salad greens and tomato. I’ve given up the wheat and bread, so I served ours with a really yummy flavour balanced salad.
The recipe is below, its not one that you need to measure out ingredients, just add a little more or less depending on how many you are feeding. The easiest things to double would be the carrot, apple and spinach leaves to make it go further. The amount that I’ve made would feed 2-3 comfortably.
Carrot, apple + spinach salad
1 carrot, grated
1 granny smith apple, grated
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
handful baby spinach
raw macadamias – you could toast these if you wish
2 Tbsp flaked coconut
2 Tbsp currants
1 Tbsp pine nuts
1 Tbsp sunflower seeds
1 Tbsp pepitas – I have a Lucky packet of Natural seed mix with pine nuts from Woolworths
squeeze lemon juice – over the apple soon after grating, will stop it browning
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
As above, its good to grate the apple first and place in a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice over it to stop it browning. Throw all the other ingredients in as you go. In a small jar, pour the olive oil – doesn’t need to be exact, a good glug is enough – add the cinnamon and chilli flakes. Place the lid on and give it a good shake. Pour this over the top then get in there with your hands and toss the ingredients through. You could use a couple of spoons if you wish, but carrot and apple are hard to separate so a gentle toss through with your fingers works just perfectly to incorporate it all.
Two of the burgers with a large handful of the salad is enough for each person, its surprisingly filling! The best part about these recipes together is that the flavours are really balanced. There is a real mix of sweet and savoury to satisfy your taste buds. Both of them keep really well as leftovers for lunch the next day too, I had this at work the day after and just heated the burgers for a minute in the microwave and it was just as tasty as the night before.
I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Bon appetit!
A Change for the Better 