Today’s Kitchen Experiment...

Well, it's that time...Time to make up burgers for the summer! I always make a couple batches for the freezer at the start of the season to have burgers on hand throughout the summer. Of course burgers make perfect quick meals for summer time and it is always a neccessity for camping and for summer gatherings.

By the end of last season, I was so tired of hot dogs and hamburgers, I was welcoming winter just to get a break from the food! Now that summer is on it’s way, I’m definitely welcoming the sun, and looking forward to the BBQ again to rescue me from my humbug supper routine.

But as I thought about summer coming up, I also thought about my bathing suit... and the thought of all those heavy summer favourites and junk foods... about all those hot dogs, smokies, hamburgers and steaks for some reason were just not as appealing this year. Maybe it was in having kids and eating those foods more often that it has become less of a “treat” to have the “summer favourites” that has finally was starting to turn me off, or maybe it has a little to do with aging and my appetite changing, or maybe it has to do with wanting to take care of my body a little better,or maybe it is all of that on top of staying trim for bathing suit season, but it was all kind of making me nervous just thinking about it.

So...getting to the point... I ran a little kitchen experiment looking for an alternative to burgers this year... Turkey Quinoa Veggie Burgers! I found a Turkey Quinoa recipe online, and then added a little of my own style to it...

Here is the experiment:

I combined and blended 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs, 8 baby carrots, a few mushrooms, a cup of spinach, about ¼ of an onion, and a ½ cup of cauliflower puree in a food processor then added 2 cups cooked quinoa and blended this with the mixture until well combined in the processor, added some sea salt, fresh ground pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder, then mixed this in a bowl with 2 packages of extra lean ground turkey. I formed into balls and pressed them between wax paper and plates to make them perfectly flat. They stick together great and made perfect patties!

It made 12 burgers. I left them pressed in the wax paper and froze them individually on a cookie sheet, then transferred them into a Ziploc for summer storage, so I could just take out one at a time for myself or the kids if my hubby still wanted to make beef patties for supper, then at least I could have something different when I want.

I’m guessing from the recipe I based this on and the info on the turkey and quinoa packages that this would run around 4-7g of Fat, 225-250 Calories, 2-4g of Fibre and around 20-25g of Protein and low Cholesterol around 65-70mg. Where a standard burger runs anywhere around 25-35g of Fat, 350-425 Calories, .5g of Fibre and a only a little more Protein while usually around 160mg of Cholesterol.

Next it’s on to making the beef patties for the summer... But I won’t be making them the old-fashioned way, no, I’ll be hiding a little bit of “healthy” in those too!

Here is how I make beef patties:

I add ½ cup broccoli puree, ½ cup carrot puree, chopped onion, 2 eggs to lean ground beef, and in place of bread crumbs I’ll use half whole wheat bread crumbs and half all bran buds ground finely. Because the all bran is soluble fibre, it will help prevent some of the fat from the beef from being absorbed into your body. I often add minced mushroom as well, and then season with seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder.

Making turkey burgers was no harder than making beef burgers, maybe even a little easier as they formed so well, and I wondered why I was so hesitant before to think that making something different when it was so easy to make that change, to step outside the box and try a different style of cooking...I guess I thought it’d be difficult, and was not in my skill set, or that I’d miss out by not having beef so I just made the same tried and true recipes over and over again, but I was wrong. It was not so hard after all. But the test to pass was surely going to be the taste...so I actually decided to test one out for myself for lunch before I attempted to serve them to my family...

They cooked up beautifully on the BBQ, did not shrink much at all in size and did not stick or fall through the grates. So they passed the prep test, and now they passed the cooking test...so next...to taste...

I added some mozza cheese and served on whole wheat with cucumber, tomato and a little mayo. . and YES...I was pleasantly surprised, I actually liked them! I even think that if next time I tried them with some BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, slice of red onion, and a little mustard & relish they would even pass to feed to my husband...

There are tonnes of great online recipes for all kinds of burgers! Let this be the summer you step outside the box!