Burgers are Back—and Healthy!

By Emma

Yes! Burgers can be healthy! Well, in reality as healthy as you make them. Our LFW burgers are organic and lean, vegetarian, chicken and fish and we use whole fillets not shredded or mashed with other ingredients.  As a Paleo I go ‘naked burger’ ie, no bun, but you can use GF buns or wholegrain if you prefer. Best GF wholegrain buns are either DEEKS (Dickson and Pearce) or delish PURE BRED rolls from your local Coles or Woolworths supermarkets—our GF team stumbled across these when in Sydney with no DEEKS in sight and they’re terrific!

You can use a meat patty (recipe below), a nice lean chicken or salmon fillet, veggie patty, and your favourite salad fillings. Top it off with aioli or our home-made guacamole or salsa sauce*. You can also ring the changes on your meat or veggie patty by including mixed spices such as Moroccan, Indian, or Australian bush spices and conserves.

Click the link for recipes

First you have to start with a basic patty. It can be varied by adding about ½ cup grated onion or a pinch of chopped herbs, depending on your taste. It’s also recommended that you use mince that contains a little fat as this helps to tenderise it when cooking and stops the meat from drying out. The raw patties also freeze well, and you can, if you wish, make miniature patties along the lines of the popular, and ever so trendy, sliders.

Beef or lamb burgers

What you need

• 750g organic beef or lamb mince
• 1 cup breadcrumbs (use real bread, not the packet stuff)
• 1 lightly whisked egg
• Salt & ground black pepper
• Spices (optional)

What you do

Tip everything in a bowl and go for it; use your hands to mix as it all gets mushed together a bit better, then BBQ, grill, or fry in a little olive oil. This will make four large burgers or eight small sliders.

Chicken or salmon fillet burgers

Chicken: Moist, tender chicken fillets are great on burgers. Skin the chicken (or buy skinless fillets—one fillet will make two burgers). Heat oven to 220 degrees celcius. Cover an oven tray with foil and bake the fillets for 10 minutes, then turn and bake a further 10 minutes. If they need a few more minutes, turn the oven off and check after five minutes.

Salmon: Follow the instructions for chicken and place skin side down on the foiled line tray and bake for 15 minutes. If they need a few more minutes cover the fillets with foil to stop them drying out, turn the oven off, and leave a further five minutes if necessary.

JO vegetarian burgers

OK so we cheated just a little here and used a great recipe from the awesome Jamie Oliver—our current fave celeb chef. You can get Jamie’s recipe here—we passed on the fried onion rings. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/brilliant-veggie-burger

Or just use simple veggies such as marinated peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber, and Spanish onion in layers with guacamole spread. Delish!

When you’re done pop the burger on the bun and add your favourite salad fillings including lettuce, tomato, onion rings, capsicum, beetroot, etc.

What’s your favourite healthy burger? Comment and share your recipe here.

*You can find our home-made guacamole and salsa recipes at Super Healthy Chips and Dips! under our Eating Healthy tag.