Roasted Tomato Turkey Burgers

I'm a product reviewer at Moana Saves, a fantastic site with reviews and many great giveaways. I review everything from children's games to personalized iPad cases to a whole list of food items (Bacon Hot Sauce, Beano's sandwhich sauce, The Everything Bean Cookbook, etc). Recently I had the chance to review some food products from Giada De Laurentiis's gourmet food line sold at Target. I'm having so much fun with Giada's Pepper & Eggplant Tomato Spread. This sauce is for mixing with your pasta or serving on a baguette but I'm experimenting with it and finding new ways to enjoy it's roasted pepper, tomato and eggplant flavor. My latest invention, these turkey burgers, was a huge hit with my family.  The addition of the sauce added great flavor to the patties, served bun-less alongside rice and vegetables. 

Roasted Tomato Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey

1 1/2 Tablespoons Giada De Laurentiis's Pepper & Eggplant Tomato Spread (sold at Target)

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup italian breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper

1/2 teaspoon season salt

1 egg

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Mix all ingredients excluding the ricotta cheese. Form 5 small patties, reserving additional meat mixture. Place a spoonful of ricotta on each patty and top with additional turkey mixture, sealing the ricotta in the center of each patty. Grill 5-7 minutes on each side or until the meat is fully cooked.

*My notes: these are moist patties with the addition of the cheese filling so be careful as you flip them on the grill.

Who Dished it first? this is an original by me on The Dish List

Turkey Mini Meatloaves

My sister-in-law has a great meal tradition of cooking with beans or lentils twice a week. I love this idea of meatless meals more often. Not only is it less expensive but it's healthier. This recipe unfortunately isn't meatless but the addition of kidney beans stretched the meal allowing for more leftovers and better health.  I love to cook a large amount of beans and freeze them in individual ziploc bags. This is how I had the idea to pull out these kidney beans and add them to our average-joe barbecue meatloaf meal. What I really like about using ground turkey instead of ground beef (besides the flavor) is the amount of moisture the meat retains. Even with the loaves cooked individually they each retained a great amount of moisture.

Ground Turkey Mini-Meat Loaves

an original recipe by Jayne at The Dish List

1 pound ground turkey

1 1/2 cups cooked kidney beans

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup bell peppers

1 garlic clove

olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Saute the bell peppers and diced onion in the olive oil until onions become translucent.  Add the garlic to the onion mixture the last minute. Remove from pan and place in large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Spray a mini loaf baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and fill each mini-loaf with the ground turkey mixture until it is rounded on top. (The meat will cook and shrink.) Bake 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Braised Kabocha Squash and Chicken

Have you heard of a Kabocha Squash? It's also called a Japanese pumpkin. No? Either had I until recently when one came in my fruit and veggie box from our local coop.

I have to admit that this little green guy sat on my counter for a month as I searched for the perfect recipe. I found many recipes for slicing, seasoning (some with chili powder and cayenne. Wow!), and baking. Finally I found this gem of a recipe on the website for The Washington Post and we all (children included) enjoyed this sweet yet savory recipe. 

I know what your first thoughts must be. Squash chunks with meat? And it's an Asian dish? Are you sure it's good? Yes!  The meat and soy sauce bring savor along with a slight sweetness of the squash.  My main disclaimer about this recipe is the carving of the vegetable. Be warned because it takes a good ten-plus minutes with a sharp knife and a strong arm. My second disclaimer is that I'm posting this recipe exactly as Chef Kaz Okochi of Kaz Sushi Bistro would have it even though I haven't cooked it per his exact instructions. (See my notes at the bottom of this post.) I usually don't post a recipe without trying it exactly per the original recipe but since some of my neighbors have the same squash sitting all by his lonesome on their counters I thought I would share this recipe before experimenting with it more. Plus, like I said, this recipe is kid-approved in my house so it must taste good enough to share. Agreed? 

Braised Kabocha Squash and Chicken
Courtesy of The Washington Post

1 3-pound kabocha squash
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 ounces ground chicken*
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
2 1/2 cups plus 1 1/2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mirin*
2 1/2 tablespoons tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon potato starch or tapioca starch*

Use a long, heavy knife to cut the squash into quarters. Discard the seeds and strings inside; peel each quarter and cut the flesh into 1/2-inch cubes. There should be about 4 1/2 cups.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers. Add the chicken and ginger and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring to break up clumps, until no pink remains in the chicken. Add the squash and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring once or twice, until it is well coated. Add 2 1/2 cups of water and cook for 5 to 6 minutes; the squash should be submerged.

Combine the sugar and mirin in a measuring cup, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and add to the pan. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the tamari or soy sauce and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the liquid in the pan or skillet has reduced by half. The squash should be firm but tender and easily pierced with a fork.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons water with the potato starch or tapioca starch in a measuring cup and add to the pan. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly; the sauce will thicken almost immediately and will take on a smooth sheen when it's done. Divide among individual bowls and serve hot.

*My Notes: I didn't have a couple of ingredients, including mirin or the preferred starch and ground meat. Instead I substituted rice vinegar for the mirin since they're very similar and cornstarch for the potato or tapioca starch. Ground chicken is expensive and hard to come by (someday I'll have my own meat grinder!) and I love the flavor of ground turkey but we ate our last package the previous night so I resorted to using ground beef. Believe it or not this dish still tasted good with ground beef.

If you try this recipe with the ground chicken or turkey before I do feel free to leave a comment with your reaction!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Disclaimer: I'm married to a Chemist and to him cooking is like chemistry in that you must follow the recipe word for word and MEASURE everything! (I usually just shake, sprinkle and eyeball my ingredients and it drives him nuts.) I must say that he is a fabulous cook, especially when it comes to an intricate recipe that requires patience and lots of work. I on the other hand like to tweak and change recipes as I go along but I don't inform him of this until I see the smile of enjoyment on his face after he has taken the first bite. Tonight's experience was no exception. (*wink*) He loved this recipe! It's an even greater compliment that my husband enjoyed my version of an Asian dish because he lived in Taiwan for two years and he knows what the authentic food really tastes like.

Tonight I really wanted to make Asian Lettuce Wraps because I had a 3-pack of iceberg lettuce I needed to use but I didn't have ground chicken like I used in my previous posting for this recipe. I had a package of ground turkey so I searched online to see if any recipes use this ingredient in place of chicken. (We love the taste of ground turkey and use it often as a healthy alternate to ground beef.)  When I couldn't find a recipe that looked tasty or didn't require ingredients that were not in my cupboard I decided to wing it. To my husband's great pleasure the recipe turned out fabulous! Even better was that my kids LOVED this! It isn't often that my 7 year old is the last one to leave the table but tonight she was. 

Asian Lettuce Wraps

(Who "Dished" it first? Me!)

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 of a red bell pepper (about 1/2 cup), diced

2-3 stalks celery, diced very small

1/2 cup finely grated carrots

1-2 teaspoons garlic

2 green onions, finely diced (I didn't have any so I used a shake or two of onion powder)

Sauce: (I have seen sauce recipes that include sesame oil and hot sauce but I was all out and I wanted to keep the heat out of this recipe for my kids' sake.)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar (I didn't have any tonight so I used apple cider vinegar)

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger

Brown the ground turkey in a sauce pan drizzled with olive oil. Add the vegetables when the meat is cooked and saute for 1-2 minutes. (You can reserve the carrots to add at the very end. I've done that before but tried this tonight where I add them at the beginning at since they were so finely shredded I didn't taste a noticeable difference. I think the real difference is presentation and preserving the bright orange color.) Add three-quarters of the sauce mixture, reserving the remaining sauce for dipping. Simmer this mixture until the sauce is reduced and there is almost no liquid in the pan. While this is simmering wash, dry and separate your lettuce leaves. When the meat mixture is prepared serve it on individual lettuce leaves dribbling a spoonful of the reserved sauce on top of each. 

**My notes: The soy sauce mixture can be salty so I would use low-sodium soy sauce if you have it. Traditionally lettuce wraps are served with the reserved sauce for dipping but my family is usually happy without the extra sauce. In fact, recently I'm experimenting with adding less than 3/4 cups of sauce to the meat mixture. Leave a comment to tell me if you like it with less sauce.

Sloppy Turkey Joes

As a family we are trying to trim the amount of red meat we eat and I had a lot of ground turkey in the freezer so I looked for a turkey version of sloppy joes and this is what I found. We all loved the recipe, especially served with our version of Tyler Florence's coleslaw.

Sloppy Turkey Joes
Rachel Ray

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 1 package, 1 1/3 pounds, ground turkey breast or lean ground turkey
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend (recommended: McCormick Montreal Grill Seasoning or Mrs. Dash seasoning for poultry)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup tomato sauce,( 8- ounce) can
• 4 crusty sandwhich rolls, split

Directions

Drizzle olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the ground turkey, diced onion and red bell pepper. In a small bowl combine: grill seasoning blend, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and the tomato sauce. Pour the sauce evenly over the meat and stir everything together. Turn the heat down to simmer and cook the sloppy mixture for 10 minutes. Serve over toasted rolls!

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers

If you haven't noticed already, I'm rather drawn to ground turkey and these meat patties have a flavor that just makes my mouth water. We made this burger recipe the other night and with the feta filling and the yogurt/cucumber sauce it almost felt like I was eating a Greek burger if such a thing exists. I'm really trying to be more careful about what I eat and this dinner was very satisfying yet low-calorie! I loaded mine with plenty of lettuce and fresh garden tomatoes and ate it on a yummy flat-bread bun I found at Costco that was low calorie as well.

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers
Recipe Courtesy of Cooking Light

• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup grated English cucumber
• 1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices tomato
• 4 green leaf lettuce leaves
• 4 (2-ounce) Kaiser rolls or hamburger buns

1. Combine first 6 ingredients. Divide mixture into four portions. Indent center of each portion; place 1 1/2 tablespoons feta into each. Fold turkey mixture around cheese; shape each portion into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.
2. Heat grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties; cook 5 minutes on each side.
3. Combine cucumber, yogurt, and mint in a small bowl. Arrange 1 turkey patty, 1 tomato slice, 1 lettuce leaf, and 2 tablespoons yogurt mixture on bottom half of each roll. Top with top halves of rolls.
Sautéed zucchini: Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups sliced zucchini and 2 minced garlic cloves; sauté 5 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 386

Fat: 13.7g (sat 4.5g,mono 4.3g,poly 3g)

Protein: 30.2g

Carbohydrate: 34g

Fiber: 2.3g

Cholesterol: 109mg

Iron: 3.9mg

Sodium: 897mg

Calcium: 198mg

Turkey Spanakopita Burger

Turkey burgers have so much flavor! This is the third turkey burger recipe I've found and loved. It was also fun disguising spinach in the burger for the kids to get their green veggies. I was disappointed in the burger topping options and will most likely serve this without the bun next time because the meat is tasty enough to stand on it's own. Rachael Ray recommends a cucumber yogurt sauce or a roasted red pepper spread but I think a slice of fresh tomato on top and a side salad would be perfect. (By the way, I was wondering what spanakopita means and looked it up. They are Greek pastries filled with feta and spinach.)

Turkey Spanakopita Burger

recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan, plus some for drizzling

1 tablespoon butter

3 cloves garlic, 2 chopped, 1 crushed

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 box (10 ounces) frozen spinach, defrosted

2 teaspoons dried oregano, lightly crushed in the palm, divided

1/4 pound feta crumbles

1 1/3 pounds ground chicken or ground turkey breast

1 tablespoon grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. To one side, add a little extra-virgin olive oil and a tablespoon of butter. When butter melts, add the chopped garlic and chopped red onion and cook 5 minutes. Transfer the onions and garlic to a bowl to cool. 

Wring the defrosted spinach dry buy twisting it in a clean kitchen towel over your sink. Separate the spinach as you add it to the bowl with cool onions, garlic and season with 1 teaspoon of oregano. Add feta crumbles then turkey, grill seasoning and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Mix and form into 4 patties, 1-inch thick. Return pan to stovetop, raise heat to medium-high and add patties cooking 6 minutes on each side. (We grilled our outside on the BBQ. I was nervous that the meat/cheese mixture would gum up the grill or fall apart but it cooked really well and didn't make a mess.)

*Jayne's Notes: I used fresh spinach from the garden, steamed it for 5 minutes and then wrung the excess moisture out before adding it to the recipe. Tonight we served this with a basil pesto aioli sauce but it wasn't great. I really do think this would taste just fine as a bun-less meat main dish and some fresh sliced tomatoes and maybe cucumbers on top.

Grilled Turkey & Cheddar Sandwiches with Mango Chutney

This recipe mixes ever so slight indian flavors with mango chutney for a delicious grilled panini. I served this tonight with oven-roasted potato wedges drizzled with olive oil and onion soup mix. The weather has been very warm lately so it was nice to have a light sandwich for dinner. My little girls also enjoyed the sandwiches so count this recipe in as family friendly.

Grilled Turkey and Cheddar Sandwiches with Mango Chutney

recipe and photo courtesy of Finecooking.com

2 c grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 c finely chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 c Major Grey's mango chutney

4 naan breads

12 oz sliced turkey breast

1 T unsalted butter, melted

1/2 t ground cumin

Heat a panini or sandwich press according to manufacturer's instructions. (Alternatively, heat a nonstick grill pan over medium-high heat and put a heavy pan on top of the sandwich while cooking, turning sandwich over once.)

While the press is heating, combine the cheese and cilantro in a small bowl and stir until blended. Spread the chutney inside one half of each of the naan breads. Top with the turkey and cheese mixture. Fold the naan in half to cover the sandwich filling. Combine the melted butter and cumin; brush on both sides of the sandwich.  Put the sandwich on the press, pull the top down and cook until browned and crips, about 3-6 minutes. 

Jayne's notes: Eat these hot off the grill or the bread will get soggy. Naan is a slightly puffy Indian-style flatbread that can be found in most grocery stores in the bakery section by pita breads. Other flatbreads can be substituted but I recommend they not be too thin or too dry or else it won't grill nicely and it might fall apart. Also, Major Grey's is the name of the mango chutney and not the brand. I did find this in the condiment section of my local grocer but I've also seen it in the international section of the store.

Turkey Brine

Photo of PW's turkey -- ours was demolished before it's photo op

I know it's December but we're revisiting Thanksgiving in my house today. I bought a 16 lb turkey for $5 and my husband was excited until he saw the generic-brand label. Let me just say that you can purchase the cheapest turkey in the store and with this brine recipe it will taste great! (I originally typed 'amazing' but I wonder what a fresh turkey would taste like with this brine. Too bad I'll never know...) Since it's snowy yet not below freezing we put our brine/turkey in a large covered bucket and set it on our porch overnight. Luckily our bird didn't freeze by morning. This is to die for turkey brine!! I think we will brine our turkeys from now on. The meat was so tender and juicy it just fell off the bones. Mmmm...now I get to eat leftovers!!
PW’s Homemade Turkey Brine (This is enough for a 20-lb turkey; you can decrease the quantity for a smaller bird.)
2 gallons water
2 cups apple juice
2 cups kosher salt (can decrease to 1 1/2 cups if you’re concerned about salt)
2 cups brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5 bay leaves
3 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoons dried rosemary
Peel of 2 oranges (I just roughly slice off the orange part of the peel (not much white pith) with a sharp knife, then give it a rough chop to release all the citrus-y wonderfulness)
Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat immediately, cover, and allow mixture to come to room temperature. Cool mixture in the fridge until you’re ready.
To brine the turkey, remove turkey from wrapper, remove gross bags, and rinse thoroughly under cool water. Place the turkey into a plastic brining bag (available at many kitchen shops, maybe even stores like Target) OR a very large pot. Pour cool brine mixture over the top, adding extra cold water if you need more to cover. Seal bag or cover pot and allow turkey to brine in refrigerator for 8 to 18 hours before roasting.
Before roasting, remove turkey from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Pat dry. Discard brine.
PW's IMPORTANT BRINE NOTE: I forgot to mention that when you brine your turkey, the drippings are quite salty. For this reason, it is VERY important that you use a no-sodium (or low-sodium) chicken broth when you make the turkey gravy. Also, I often will cut the drippings with the giblet water to decrease the saltiness. Also, many frozen turkeys are injected with a sodium solution—it’s best NOT to brine these turkeys! Brining fresh turkeys is the way to go.
*Jayne's notes: We did brine a store bought, sodium injected turkey, but it tasted great being brined. Our gravy was salty so I will dilute it even more next time, although my husband liked it and he didn't think it was too salty.

Cheese-Stuffed Southwest Turkey Burgers

Originally from Cooking Pleasures magazine Apr/May 08, recipe found on Perrys' Plate. I LOVE her recipe blog!! (Nat's photo, not mine)

Cheese-Stuffed Southwest Turkey Burgers

8 oz ground turkey breast
1 c shredded zucchini
2/3 c bread crumbs
1/3 c finely chopped onion
3 T taco or enchilada sauce, divided
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
4 T shredded cheese
4 hamburger rolls, split

Heat grill to med-high heat. Drain zucchini in colander and dry slightly with paper towel. Combine turkey, zucchini, bread crumbs, onion, 1 T of sauce, egg white, cumin and salt in a large bowl. Shape half of mixture into 4 patties, 1/4-inch thick. Place 1 T cheese in center of each patty. Shape remaining turkey mixture into 4 patties, 1/4-inch thick and place on top of cheese-topped patties. Press edges to seal while shaping.

Grill, covered, about 10 minutes or until no longer pink in the center and cooked through, turning and brushing with remaining taco sauce halfway through cooking.

Toast rolls during last minute of cooking. Assemble burgers. Makes 4.