Burgers on Turkish Bread

A burger with meat and veg patties

• CuisineAmerican
• CategoryBeef
• CourseMains

Ingredients

• 500 gmsBeef mince
• 150 gmsOnions, finely chopped
• 100 gmsCarrots, grated
• 100 gmsBreadcrumbs
• 1 tspChilli powder
• 1 tspDijon mustard
• 1Egg, beaten
•  Salt
•   
• 4Round 12cm turkish bread loaves
• 4Lettuce leaves
• 200 gmsOnions, sliced
•  BBQ sauce
• 4 slicesCheese
• 8 slicesShortcut bacon
•  Oil

Preparation

1. Mix the first set of ingredients and roll into thin patties and fry on each side
2. Fry bacon slices
3. Remove bacon, add more oil and fry sliced onions
4. Cut turkish bread in half and lightly toast each side under the grill
5. Put some fried onions on one half
6. Add pattie, put slices of bacon and slice of cheese
7. Melt cheese under the grill
8. Add second pattie, some BBQ sauce, lettuce and other half of the bread

I was getting a bit tired of the old stodgy hamburgers. I decided to lighten the meat content of the pattie by adding grated vegetables. The grated onion and carrot improve the taste of the pattie and make them lighter. Roll the pattie between sheets of baking paper and make it about 5mm thick. Remember that they tend to shrink a lot once fried so make them at least 3 cms oversize. Fry till the edges go almost black - this crunches it up. Using two thin patties instead of a single thick one doubles the crunchy crust.

A layer of bacon and melted cheese is between the two patties. I used turkish bread, which is fluffier and has a better texture than normal hamburger white bread. The order I used from the bottom to top is toasted turkish bread, fried onions, first pattie, bacon, melted cheese, BBQ sauce, second pattie, lettuce and then the top toasted turkish bread. You can see all of it in the cross-section above.