My sister in law Krystal is one of the best “home chefs” that I know and she came up with this turkey burger recipe and shared it with us when she was visiting last year and we have been making them every single week since.

My wife Chelsea has been mostly vegetarian her whole life until she became pregnant with Matteo 5 years ago. She had always said she would listen to her body if she ever got pregnant and follow whatever cravings she had.  We began to add protein into our diets. Turkey meat seemed to be the best option for us and so we would have it once a week and try it in different forms, Meatloaf, Shepards Pie, Lettuce Cups and of course the most obvious choice for ground turkey… burgers. We rarely had them though because they always came out dry and bland and we had to load them up with sauces.

Well, not these, Chelsea loves them.  Matteo (4), who has a very refined palate for someone his age loves them and even our 1 year old Owen loves them. I have tried so many different variations of a turkey burger in my quest to eat healthy delicious food and most of them end up being dry and tasteless. However, these are unlike any I’ve had before. They are full of flavor, moist and delicious.

I cooked these for my men’s retreat back in March.  We cook them whenever we have friends over and this past weekend, we went up to Big Bear and stayed with some friends and made them and they asked for the recipe.

There is a lot to the recipe, which makes them so good. So when my friend Tyler reached out to me asking for it I decided I would share it on my blog so anyone can have access to it and try it out for themselves. 

The secret to them is the unique flavor. The curry and apple go so well together that I want to experiment with that combination in other dishes. If you come up with anything good, let me know.

What you will need…

1 pound Turkey meat 93% Lean. I get the organic one from Trader Joes
1 Apple
1 small or 1/2 onion
1 slice gluten free bread. (Chelsea is gluten free)
1 egg
1 tsp Curry Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Salt

Directions

Toast bread and dice onion and cook it in butter or olive oil until lightly browned. Dice up the apple and toast into small pieces. While the onions are cooling, mix turkey meat and spices together. Add onions, bread, apple and egg to the mixture and form into patties.  Then  cook  until  done  on  a grill,  skillet,  or  grill  pan  like  below.
I find that this amount makes 8 good size burgers or 14 sliders. We recently had some non gluten free Hawaiian rolls and the sliders worked perfectly.

We hardly ever have them with buns because they are so good by themselves. Sometimes they go over a salad or sometimes just on it’s own with either Sweet Potato Fries or wedge cut Gold Potatoes and either Asparagus or Green Beans for the veggie.

We love these potatoes too and they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside when you do this secret trick I read about… Cut them and soak them in water for at least 30 minutes. Then let them dry before adding the oil and spices. We coat ours in avocado oil because it has a higher cooking temperature than olive oil.  For spices, we absolutely love the Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning and also add some Rosemary and Thyme from our garden.

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes turning once or if you really want the best result, 425 for 15 minutes and then turn it down to 375 for 15 minutes. 

Here they are pairing with a Fennel, Arugula, Orange Salad and Carrot, Ginger soup

I’d love to hear what you think of these and what you ended up pairing them with. Enjoy friends…