Half & Half Turkey Burger Recipe

I call these burgers half and half because I mix equal parts of lean ground beef with ground turkey. I do the same with meatloaf or anything else that calls for ground beef. I just find that lean ground beef alone is dry and flavorless, while the color of ground turkey alone turns me off and just isn't meaty enough. Together, however, they are great! The differences in nutritional values as far as fat and calories go are negligible. The beef having 170 calories and 8 grams of fat per 4 oz serving and the turkey 160/7.

This recipe was inspired by a heart healthy cook book belonging to one of my clients. I have made the recipe out of the book for their family many times, but I use my own special version when making them for myself. My recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

1 # 7% fat, lean ground beef
1 # ground turkey (not 100% turkey breast which is too lean and more costly)
1 8 oz container of fat free Greek yogurt
2 Tbs mayo
1 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1 good handful of fresh cilantro leaves
1 good handful of fresh dill sprigs
1 lemon
salt & pepper to taste
dash of onion powder

Procedure

Get a bowl large enough to hold and mix the ground meats but do not put the meat in to the bowl yet. Instead, dump the yogurt, mayo, Dijon mustard, and salt & pepper in to the bowl.

Then, take out a cutting board and finely chop up the fresh herbs, add that to the bowl, plus the zest of the whole lemon and half of the lemon's juice. Mix all of this up until well combined and then transfer the mixture in to a smaller serving bowl. This is a delicious low fat sauce for serving with the burgers. Reserve 2 Tbs of the mixture and leave it right in side of the same bowl that you will now use to mix the meats. Cover your cutting board with tinfoil or plastic wrap, as you will need a work space when portioning and forming your meat patties. This makes clean up easier.

Now add your ground meats to the bowl plus some salt & pepper and the onion powder. Be sure to mix it well incorporating all of the reserved yogurt sauce. Now divide your meat mixture into 8 (4 ounce) portions. Use the covered cutting board as a work surface for the raw meat. For complete accuracy, you can use an ice cream scoop and a scale to weigh the meat when portioning. Just be sure to cover your scale with plastic wrap for safe handling if it does not have a removable top that can be washed after use. Once you have your evenly portioned meat, form the portions in to balls first and then patties.

Cook the patties as you would cook any other burger. Grill, broil, frying pan, etc.. I like to use a cast iron grill pan over my gas stove. Just be sure that you coat what ever cooking surface you will be using with non stick spray. The turkey mixture is slightly softer than straight ground beef and care should be taken so that the patties won't stick or fall apart when cooking.

The Weight Watcher point value for one burger is 4 points. Tonight I enjoyed my burger on a regular wheat bun with the yogurt sauce, sliced avocado, lettuce and tomato for a total of 7 points.