When trying to stretch the food budget, ground meat is often less expensive than a whole cut of meat. Also, you can get away with serving less meat per serving (I can eat one 4-ounce burger and be full, but if I ate only 4 ounces of steak, I'd still be hungry).
I had picked up some ground turkey from Trader Joe's to make baby meatballs. But since Liam is getting better at chewing, he usually gets small pieces directly from a whole breast of chicken or turkey, pork chop or steak. Since we also had burger buns in the freezer, I browsed some blogs until I found a recipe that sounded good.
I found these turkey burgers with cumin aioli at Jenna's Cooking Journey. Jenna didn't sound thrilled with the results (though she didn't have anything bad to say about them), but turkey patties topped with cheese, veggies and avocado with a spiced aioli sounded really good to me!
And they were very good. Adding some of the aioli to the ground turkey ensures that the burgers stay moist. I served them with homemade oven-baked sweet potato fries. The Mister loved them (then again, he loves food in general -- I've yet to hear him say a negative thing about a recipe I've made, so take his review with a grain of salt), even though I completely forgot to add the red pepper to the burgers! I bought the pepper, but it never made it out of the refrigerator. Anyway, even Liam gobbled up (hehe) his baby-sized turkey patties.
Turkey Burgers with Cumin Aioli
Adapted from Bon Appetit, as seen on Jenna's Cooking Journey
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, grated
For the burgers
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 4 slices white cheddar cheese
- 4 hamburger buns
- Arugula
- Avocado slices
Directions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and coriander in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Aioli can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Cover and refrigerate.
- Place the ground turkey in medium mixing bowl. Add 2 tbsp of the aioli; mix gently until fully combined. Using damp, clean hands, divide the turkey mixture into 4-ounce portions, then form each into ¾-inch-thick patties, about 3 ½ inches in diameter. Using thumb, make small indentation in center of each burger to keep the burger from puffing too much during cooking.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick spray. Sprinkle burgers with salt and pepper. Cook turkey burgers about 5 minutes. Flip the burgers over; and continue cooking until almost cooked through, about 4 minutes.
- Top each burger with 1 cheese slice and cook until meat is cooked through and cheese melts, about another minute longer.
- Place 1 turkey burger on each of 4 bun bottoms. Top each with dollop of aioli, some arugula and avocado. Cover the burgers with bun tops and serve with your favorite burger sides.
That cumin aioli sounds fantastical. And turkey burgers are my superfaves! Love this!!
Glad you liked them! We thought they were good burgers too.
I love how simple this recipe is. I'm always trying new turkey and chicken burger recipes, but I've never tried one with aioli in the burger. Marking this as my next burger recipe to make!
I love the idea of the spicy aioli. Yum.
Looks awesome!! I love creative flavors for turkey burgers. Thank you for sharing. ~ Meghan from thetastyfork.com