Mediterranean Burgers

I have developed a bad habit recently of completely winging dinner.  You know those nights; you open the fridge and the pantry and gaze, stupified, at the contents-wondering what you might be able to combine to make a semi-edible meal.

Sometimes, those nights end up providing us with a new favorite dish.  This is one of those recipes.

I have a fetish for feta.

Haha.  Fetish.  For feta.  Look, it was a late night, okay?

Anyway, this is another super easy recipe you can throw together and cook in snap.  We like to make roasted potato wedges and a salad of some kind to go with it. 

Go hunting and gathering to find these:

Ground turkey, garlic, red pepper, spinach, feta, bread crumbs, and an egg.

Give the bell pepper a nice dice.

Add the bell pepper and the garlic to a skillet.  Heaping.  Garlic likes to be measured in heaping measurements, I think.

Saute your garlic and bell pepper until the pepper is nice and soft.

Grab a big handful of spinach.  I have no idea what measurement it is; I just grab a big handful and call it good.  This is a really flexible recipe.  Measurements seem so formal.

Now the culinary expert could instruct you at this point on making a nice chiffonade cut.  (Layer the leaves one on top of another, roll tightly, blah, blah, blah.)  I prefer the grab, bunch and cut method as shown above.  The spinach slices aren't perfect, but it's a rustic recipe anyway.  Embrace your inner rebel.

After your spinach is cut, break your egg into a bowl and give it a good beating.  This is the time you can fantasize about beating all of the curmudgeons in your life.  Or maybe that's just me.

In a bowl, combine the chicken, feta, red pepper/garlic mix, spinach, and bread crumbs.  Add the egg mixture and get it all mixed together.

Pat these out into patties the size of your choosing.  I make mine fairly big.  We eat them alone without buns, so big just seems right to me.  You could also roll these into individual little mini-meatballs if your into that whole self-torture scene.  I'm lazy, though, so big works well.

Place your patties into a hot skillet with some olive oil.  You could also throw all of these bad boys on a broiler pan and broil them.  Broiling is actually my preferred method of cooking these, however my oven was already occupied, so we took to the stovetop with them.

Cook for about 5-8 minutes or so, then flip and repeat on the other side.  I generally use a meat thermometer to make sure my burgers have reached around 170.  Some people like them a little rare, but I'm a big food poisoning sissy, so I tend to cook my chicken a little longer than those people.  Depending on the thickness of your burgers, you may need to adjust the cooking time. 

When your all done, serve these with some roasted potatoes and salad and you've got a quick, easy, and mostly healthy meal to feed the troops. 


Mediterranean Burgers

20 ounces ground turkey or chicken
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 heaping tsp. minced garlic
1 huge handful of spinach leaves, thinly sliced
1 cup of feta cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs, toasted if desired
1 egg, beaten

Saute bell pepper and garlic in skillet until softened.  In large bowl mix chicken, bell pepper, garlic, spinach, feta, and bread crumbs until well combined.  Add beaten egg and mix well.  Form into patties.  In a skillet heated with olive oil, cook chicken burgers 5-8 minutes on each side until done in the middle and temperature registers at 170.  (Or, place patties on broiler pan and broil until done.)  Enjoy!