Thursday, June 23, 2011

sun-dried turkey burgers with basil aioli

Happy thursday! Thursday feels like my hump day since I don't work on Monday's and I only have one day left :)

I decided to skip my tri club training to buy plants at Wallmart and have a nice evening at home. I have never had a green thumb but I figured I would give it another go so I started out with the basics some herbs, flowers and a tomato plant. Last year a giant rain storm knocked my tomato plant off the grill and left me heart broken because it was the only thing I have ever kept alive (other than myself, molly bear and my dogs).

Before starting to garden it's always a good idea to try a new summer ale.


We scored with a hanging plant for $5.00 to go next to our front door.



This is the person who will be responsible for keeping our plants alive.


I was in charge of planting the herbs. Any guesses on how long they will last?


Howard was more interested in eating the grass, hopefully the dogs wont eat our plants.



After we finished potting our plants, I went to work on the turkey burgers. I got the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, "Cooking Light: fresh food, fast weeknight meals." All of the recipes either take 5 ingredients or take 15 minutes. I love simple and fast meals since I am a relatively new comer on the cooking scene. (If you do not already own this cookbook you MUST go out and buy it)!

Sun-Dried Turkey Burgers
1 1/4 lb. ground turkey breast (I use Jenny-O)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/4 c. crumbled goat cheese
1/4 c. chopped drained oil packed sun-dried tomato halves
cooking spray
4 green leaf lettuce leaves (optional- we used spinach)
2 hamburger buns (I went bun-less to have dessert)
4 tomato slices (optional)

The key ingredient is sun-dried tomatoes (hence the name).


Jenny-O is my go to for turkey meat products.


Combine the first six ingredients, form the meat mixture into patties and place on the grill.



After grilling the burgers for 6 to 8 minutes on each side I toped them with the basil aioli. I must admit that my burgers were a tad bit over cooked but nevertheless delicious.

I made the basil aioli easier by combing all of the ingredients into a food processor.

Basil Aioli
1/4 c. light mayo
2 tsp. chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, minced


The burgers were amazing! The taste of the sun-dried tomato added a nice peppery flavor while the goat cheese made the burgers a little creamy. Johnny gave them a 5 out of 5 (we are currently working on a household rating system).


I took a picture of Johnny's because his mulit-grain bun photographed better than my burger which sat on a bed of spinach.

I want my blog to be honest and honesty means letting you know that I steamed artichokes to go with the burgers and burned them :(


The other side of the arichokes was not burnt and the insides tastes great, they were moist and steamed perfectly. When I was little my grandfather would pay me to eat the artichoke hearts and now I dig right in!

Although I was disappointed about the burnt artichokes the burgers would amazing, I would definitely suggest making them this summer.

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