My first “meals” for my husband, Joe, were turkey burgers. He doesn’t eat red meat and I didn’t have much experience making anything with ground turkey. So, I treated the turkey just like good quality ground beef, adding salt, pepper, and occasionally a few other seasonings. The burgers were dry, tough, and pretty tasteless. Joe never complained or pointed out the flaws in my cooking. Instead, he covered them with cheese and mayonnaise and genuinely thanked me for taking the time to make dinner.
Eventually I decided to start experimenting with different types turkey burgers. After many, many attempts I came up with this burger. The Dijon and the veggies add moisture and great flavor to the burgers. Topped with the buttermilk dill ranch (recipe below) this burger is a hit! Joe likes his on a toasted bun with melted swiss cheese. Occasionally I add cheese, but mostly I eat mine just with the buttermilk dill dressing. This is a family favorite now – it will be with your family, too!
Fresh from the Garden Turkey Burgers served with Sliced Tomatoes and Buttermilk Dill Ranch Dressing
Serves 61 ½ pounds ground turkey
½ cup grated carrot, drained on a paper towel
4 scallions, thinly sliced including white part
¼ cup diced button mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup brown rice bread crumbs, very fine
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon canola oil, divided
1 – 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced thick
12 ounces fresh baby spinach
1 cup buttermilk dill ranch dressing (recipe follows)Combine turkey, carrot, scallions, button mushrooms, garlic, Dijon mustard, and bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt & pepper. Mix well with a fork taking care to not compact meat. Distribute ingredients throughout meat as evenly as possible. Divide meat mixture into 6 parts and form burger patties, handling meat as little as possible. Heat oil over high heat and cook patties 4 – 5 minutes per side or until cooked through.
Divide baby spinach between 6 serving plates. Place sliced tomato on lettuce and turkey burger on top of tomato. Serve buttermilk dill ranch dressing on the side.
Buttermilk Dill Ranch Dressing
makes about 1 cup½ cup plain, nonfat yogurt
½ cup low-fat buttermilk
2 tabelespoons mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
¼ teaspoon celery salt
¼ teaspoon dried savory
¼ teaspon dried parsley
fronds from 1 stem of fresh dill, about ½ tablespoonAdd all ingredients to a blender and blend until thoroughly combined. Let rest covered in the refrigerator for at least one hour before serving.
