Greek Turkey Burgers w/ "La Freaky" Sauce (AKA Tzatziki)

I'm FINALLY posting this bomb recipe after promising it weeks ago. Whoops. And because I can't stand when I search for recipes and have to scroll for days on the blog posts to get to the ingredients and instructions, I'm going to save you all that pain and get straight to the point ;) enjoy!

If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and let me know how you liked it, if you changed anything and what you made with the burgers!

PS- We made sweet potato fries with ours the first time around, and I highly recommend making extra tzatziki (la freaky) sauce if you do that. It. Is. Amazing. Sort of addicted now. Also, every time we've cooked the burgers they've been on the grill!

Ingredients:

 

14 oz 99% fat free ground turkey

⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

¼ cup red onion, chopped

¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ or so jalepeno, diced

1 egg

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon each Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tzatziki Sauce:

½ cucumber

¾ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

½ tablespoon minced fresh dill (I used freeze dried)

Optional- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (I've made it with and without- both are yummy! I think I prefer with; it gives it a more "complete" taste)

Toppings:

Reduced fat Swiss cheese

4 soft whole-wheat hamburger buns

Sliced red onion

Romaine lettuce

Let's Get Down to Business:

(Anybody else now have the famous song from Mulan stuck in your head? Yeah, you're welcome)

PREHEAT

If making sweet potato fries, preheat the oven now according to your own judgement. We put the oven at 450 but this can definitely vary depending on your oven and fry thickness!

PREPARE THE LA FREAKY

Grate half a cucumber into a sieve over a bowl so the water can drain.

Set in the fridge covered with a paper towel for as long as you can but only as long as overnight.

Combine the yogurt, garlic and vinegar and set in fridge as well. (Dill will be added later)

GET ‘EM READY

Chop/dice/mince your onions, sun-dried tomatoes, jalepeno and garlic.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, onions, jalapeño, sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the garlic, egg, olive oil and oregano.

ALL UP IN THERE

Pour egg over the turkey mixture and get all up in there with your hands to mix it together.

Divide the mixture into desired number of patties; we did 3 (we like decently thick burgers and usually have at least one leftover to share, but next time I’d like two leftover because it was sooo good!)

TURN UP THE HEAT

We didn’t have time to refrigerate so we went straight to the grill from here, but if you have time to refrigerate- go for it!

Honestly this last part is not precise and will depend on your method of grilling, how hot and consistent your grill is, and the thickness of your patties.

It took ours a little longer to cook than we thought, probably a total of 10 minutes if I had to guess, so just keep checking and don’t let yourself get too distracted for too long because turkey burgers can get really dry really quick!

We use a gas grill that is who knows how old- it was probably the cream of the crop back in the day, but today it’s a little inconsistent with its heat.

SO ANYWAYS, put those suckers on the grill and get to cooking the best Greek turkey burgers of your life.

DON’T FORGET THE CHEESE

This part is crucial.

Don’t. Forget. The. Cheese!

We have a habit of being irresponsible with our burger grilling when we’re in a hurry and end up “Oh, crap!”-ing, running to the grill and clumsily removing the (usually burnt or dry) patties from the grate then remembering the cheese after they’re already cooked.

Adding cheese and covering with foil so they can sort of melt just isn’t the same and the burgers can continue to cook and dry out in the foil.

So don’t do that.

Instead, watch your burgers closely, but not too close because you probably enjoy having eyebrows.

When there’s a couple minutes left, add the cheese so it can melt properly.

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, BUTTER THOSE BUNS WHEN THEY’RE WARM:

I don’t know who Pete is, or where that saying came from, but I’m serious.

Being married to a Minnesotan has taught me a crucial lesson: buns, toast, and really anything that requires butter MUST be buttered the millisecond it comes out of the heat.

Or in this case, toaster.

So toast those buns and butter them immediately; it’s simple, really.

 

The best part about these burgers, aside from the party on my taste buds, is how extremely low fat they are!

I don’t pretend to be an expert on nutrition whatsoever, but with 99% fat free ground turkey (which I know can look kind of scary in the package), reduced fat Swiss cheese and nonfat Greek yogurt for the sauce, I’d say it’s pretty low in fat.

I know some people say to stay away from food that’s reduced or fat free, but for me- I love my cheese and my dairy, so the lesser fat everything has the better (that way I can have more of it, hehe).

And since we are doing carb cycling, most of my recipes are low carb. We eat pretty simple most of the week then do 1-2 fun meals that are low carb variations but maybe a little more complex, and usually full of cheese or sauce or both- that way we can eat clean but still have fun meals! Then we have a high carb day 1-2 times a week but don’t usually have bread unless it’s a “cheat” day, or as I like to call a “treat” day ;)

So I was going to make these on low carb day with a lettuce bun, but then I thought about the sweet potato fries and how we’d be missing out on fries dipped in tzatziki sauce which is like one of my favorite things in the world.

So I saved the recipe for high carb day and I’m so glad because I got the full La Freaky effect!

BUT, I would definitely make these again on low carb day (and we have, like four times...)  because the flavor in those patties was incredible. Like, I’m surprised at how juicy and flavorful they were! Especially with only 1% fat in the meat? Crazy talk.

In fact, I had half of the leftover patty the next morning and decided to fry up an egg to top it with… Not sure HOW such a genius idea came into my brain without searching or seeing it on Pinterest, but it did. And I am so proud.

I just heated up the patty in the microwave, enough to get the cheese adequately melted, topped it with the last remnants of the sauce and fried up an egg over medium.

It. Was. Perfect. The taste, not the looks. I can’t quite get my egg flip down yet.

I shook a liiitle bit of pepper on the egg and voila- amazing!