Turkey Burgers with Homemade Whole Wheat Buns

Turkey Burgers on Homemade Whole Wheat Buns, Served with Zucchini “Fries”

Or, Why I’m Reluctant to go Back to Store-bought Buns…

Last weekend, I had the hankering to bust out the grill and grill up a nice burger…

Well, I’m avoiding ground beef right now, and didn’t have any ground bison defrosted, but we did have freshly ground turkey in the fridge, just waiting to be made into scrumptious turkey burgers! I decided this was my chance to modify my black bean turkey burger recipe I posted a few months ago…and man these were great! Even reheats well (had the leftover burger for lunch today, 3 days later…)…all in all, a keeper recipe!This meal has a few elements to it, perfect for a Saturday evening meal, as you may actually have time to do all the prep work then. The first element is the turkey burger itself, then the homemade bun, and finally the healthy zucchini and yellow squash “fries”. All made with ingredients you likely have lying around at any given time…

Ingredients:

Turkey Burger (we made 3 patties, easily can be 4):

• 0.75 lb ground turkey
• ~0.5 diced red onion (reduce if you don’t like onion…my hubby thought it was a bit much)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 0.5 cup refried black beans (I used Goya, can substitute chopped black beans)
• handful cilantro (more or less to taste)
• 1 jalapeno, deseeded and diced
• cheese and condiments to garnish (optional)

Whole Wheat Bun (makes 3 large, 4 medium):

• 1.5 cups Traditional Whole Wheat Flour (we use King Arthur)
• 0.25 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
• 0.75 cup water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp yeast
• 0.5 tbsp butter

Zucchini and Yellow Squash “Fries” (serves 3):

• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium yellow squash
• ~0.25 cup diced Vidalia onion
• drizzle olive oil
• pepper to taste

Directions…

Before you get started, you’ll want to start the dough for the burger buns. We take the quick and easy way out by using a bread machine to knead our dough and help facilitate the rising. Add all of the ingredients listed above to your bread machine and set it to the dough setting.

When your dough is done rising, separate into 3-4 equal balls and flatten such that they are bun shaped. Let them rise again for at least 5-10 minutes.

You could do an egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds onto the buns. We tried lightly brushing with olive oil, which unfortunately didn’t work. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes (golden brown on top).

After you’re done setting up the bread machine, you’ll want to make up the burger mixture. Place your turkey in a medium sized bowl while you dice the red onion and mince the garlic and jalapeno. Incorporate each ingredient into the turkey until it looks evenly distributed. Add in the 1/2 cup of refried black beans (it gives the burger more moisture) and then finely chop cilantro and incorporate it into the mixture as well. Form into 3-4 medium-large sized patties, be aware that this mixture will be sticky. I placed mine in between pieces of parchment paper for easy transport to the grill.

Set the burgers aside, you’ll want them to fully warm to room temperature before grilling. Use this time to prepare your grill and zucchini and squash “fries”.

Cut the zucchini and squash length-wise into quarters then quarter each quarter. Dice up the onion. Toss in a small bowl with a light coating of olive oil and pepper (to taste). Make a foil pocket for the fries, they are being grilled! Slice a few slits into the top of the foil so the fries can “breathe” while cooking.

Prepare your grill, but first spray some non-stick spray on the grill so the burgers won’t stick when you try to flip them.

Once the grill is ready, you’re ready to go!

The veggies take ~15 minutes to cook, so we put those on first and waited about 5 minutes before cooking the turkey burgers.

Cook the turkey burgers for ~5 minutes on each side or until the internal temperature reaches 160F.

Once removed from the grill, top with cheese (if desired) and cover with foil (to help trap in heat to melt the cheese).

Once you’re done with the burgers, you can slice up the buns and grill them if you desire (which I encourage, it really makes a difference). Assemble your burgers, portion out the “fries”, add whatever other “fixins” you’d like and you have yourself an indulgently healthy dinner (and possibly a lunch to boot)!

These ended up tasting much better than my previous attempt at turkey burgers, partly due to the addition of jalapeno pepper, partly due using an actual charcoal grill rather than stovetop grill. Regardless, the recipe is a keeper and I encourage you to try them this summer!

Nutrition:

Turkey Burger (1/3 recipe, no condiments):

• ~175 cal
• 1 g fat
• neg. carb
• 34 g protein

Whole Wheat Bun (1/3 recipe, not including honey or butter, adds little fat and carb):

• ~260 cal
• 1 g fat
• 35 g carb
• 9 g fiber (!)
• 16 g protein