I first came up with this recipe a couple of years ago at uni when I was introduced to the wonderful world of dumplings by one of my housemates at university. The dumplings that she makes use pork as their base meat and because I don’t eat pork, I ended up using turkey and beef instead. The recipe is adapted from the recipe for turkey dumpling filling which I use. I will get onto dumplings in a later blog post because they are just amazing! I definitely benefited from living with such an accomplished cook at university. One of my favourite dished that I was taught was for sticky salmon and you can check out the recipe for that on her blog Yan and the Yums. I would recommend it as the recipe is super simple and will wow your friends and family!

Back to the turkey burgers, I tend to get several meals out of each recipe. If I eat them with a bun, I will eat one burger per serving but if not using a bun, I would recommend serving two burgers per person. Obviously, the larger you make the burgers, the fewer you will get out of the recipe! I love spices in food and as you will notice as this blog goes on, many of the recipes have a base of spring onions, ginger and almost always garlic.

On a separate note, I have just moved into my house for the fourth year of university so don’t be alarmed if my photos suddenly have a different background! We have and Aga this year and I am used to cooking on a gas hob and a fan oven. I will continue giving all my cooking times and such as if I was using a standard oven and hob like at home as the Aga cooks faster than I am used to!

 

 

 

Spiced turkey burgers

Makes 6-8 Burgers      Price per Portion – around 75p per burger

Preparation: 15 minutes – Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

 

Burgers

500g turkey mince

1 Bunch Spring Onions

2 inch piece of ginger

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

1 chilli

2 eggs

 

Optional

2 tbsp. Soy sauce

Salt

Pepper

Breadcrumbs

 

Finely chop the spring onions and put into a bowl.

Finely chop the garlic, ginger and chilli and add to the spring onions. I like the taste of the garlic and ginger to be quite strong but if you prefer them to be more subtle, just use a little less! The same applies for the chilli as I like my food quite spicy.

Add the eggs and if you are using them, the salt, pepper and soy sauce.

Mix together until the egg loses its gelatinous quality and is a little foamy

Add in the turkey mince a bit at a time and mix until everything is just combined. Do not over mix or the mince will turn to mush!

If you wish to add a handful of breadcrumbs, they will help absorb any excess moisture from the meat.

 

Heat a frying pan with a little oil in it (maybe half a centimetre or so)

Take a large dollop of mixture and using moistened hands, shape it into a burger patty and place it in the pan. I tend to be able to get two or three in the pan at a time.

Make sure the burgers don’t stick but other than that try not to touch them for about five minutes until the meat and egg starts to cook which will give the burgers structure.

Flip the burgers and cook for five minutes on the other side. If they brown too quickly, turn down the heat. Make sure the burgers are fully cooked before eating.

 

I serve the burgers with a sweet and spicy sesame sauce made with two tablespoons of tahini, a healthy teaspoon of Sriracha (chilli sauce) and two teaspoons of runny honey. Obviously you can play with proportions to how you are feeling at the time. There’s nothing like trial and error to work out what you like!

 

Let me know if you try this at yourselves and pop a photo across or tag me on Instagram at Harryshomebakery! I love seeing what you guys create at home.

See here for the last recipe from my Cooking from Basics series – deliciously perfect homemade pizza or here if you fancy trying you hand at making a death by chocolate tart with 4 types of chocolate and a salted caramel layer!

Have a good one and I’ll see you next Monday with a recipe for an orange and chocolate layer cake with a shiny ganache coating and fragrant orange scented booze soaked layers!

H