Try this Garden Vegetable Turkey Burgers recipe.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 red bell pepper diced
- 1/2 white onion diced
- 1 large carrot diced
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper diced
- 1 - 1/4 pound lean ground turkey
- 1 handful fresh herbs (parsley basil and/or cilantro work best), chopped $1 for a bunch
- Carbohydrate 4.85776078325321 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.992814379368245 g
- Fiber 1.08234001361254 g
- Protein 0.694173527644231 g
- Saturated Fat 0.136741278094834 g
- Serving Size 1 1 burger (59g)
- Sodium 13.895090544879 mg
- Sugar 3.77542076964067 g
- Trans Fat 0.110623754016209 g
- Calories 29 calories
Step-by-step
- Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it begins to soften and turn opaque.
- Add diced red and yellow peppers and carrot.
- Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are tender, about five minutes.
- Add in the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute or two, until the carrots have softened slightly and the mixture is fragrant.
- Remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, mash the ground turkey with a wooden spoon -- or just use your hands.
- Add salt, pepper, sautéed vegetables, chopped fresh herbs and mix until combined.
- Shape into four patties, about ¾-inch thick.
- Chill 30 minutes or so before cooking -- patties will be easier to handle.
- Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat and brush with a small amount of canola oil, or prepare a medium-hot grill.
- When you can feel the heat when you hold your hand above it, cook the patties for 5 minutes on each side, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the burgers registers 170 degrees F.
- Serve on whole-grain buns or in lettuce wraps with your favorite condiments or slaw.
Most home cooks ruin poultry burgers by failing to extract moisture from added vegetables before mixing them into the meat. Raw vegetables release water as they heat on the grill or skillet, creating steam pockets that shatter the structural integrity of the patty. Pre-cooking diced onions, peppers, and carrots in olive oil drives off excess water and concentrates natural sugars. Subsequent chilling firms the poultry fats, ensuring the raw patties hold their shape when transferred to a hot surface.
The Mechanics of Pre-Cooking and Chilling
Sautéing the aromatics until tender requires roughly five minutes over medium heat, followed by an additional minute for the minced garlic once the more robust carrots soften. Adding garlic too early burns the allium compounds, introducing bitterness. Chilling formed patties for 30 minutes solidifies the mixture before cooking, preventing the meat from sticking to a nonstick pan or grill grates. Ground turkey requires cooking until an internal meat thermometer registers 170 degrees F to ensure safety while retaining moisture.Adjusting Yields for Different Group Sizes
Scaling this formulation requires proportional adjustments to maintain the correct ratio of moisture-rich vegetables to lean meat. Doubling the batch demands careful management of the skillet capacity to sweat vegetables properly rather than steaming them in overcrowded liquid. Maintaining identical three-quarter-inch thickness across any batch size guarantees uniform cooking times.
