Greek beef burger
Serves:
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500g extra lean beef mince
- 2 tbsp Greek seasoning
- 1 Lebanese cucumber
- 2 large tomatoes
- 4 tbsp low fat or no fat natural Greek yoghurt
- 1/2 small garlic clove, minced
- 1 tbsp finely chopped mint
- oil spray
- 60g Danish feta, crumbled
Method
Place beef mince into a bowl and sprinkle over Greek seasoning.
Using a fork, gently fluff the seasoning through the mince, taking care not to overwork the meat (see notes).
Divide the mince into 8 balls and gently make patties about 2cm thick. Set aside while you prepare the vegetables and yoghurt and heat the grill.
Slice the cucumber using a potato peeler for thin ribbons. Chop the tomatoes.
Mix yoghurt, garlic and mint together and set aside.
Heat grill or non-stick frying pan to medium. Spray pan and both sides of burger patties lightly with oil and add to the pan.
Cook for 2 minutes per side and remove from heat, placing patties on a board to rest for a couple of minutes.
Place 2 burger patties on each plate, top with ribbons of cucumber, chopped tomato and feta cheese.
Serve with yoghurt.
Find related burger recipes
Serving Suggestions
Note
- The secret to a good juicy burger is not to overwork the meat during preparation or cooking. Handle the meat when making the patties as little as possible and only turn on the grill (or in the pan) once. Never push down on the burgers during cooking as it releases all those lovely juices. Let patties rest for at least a couple of minutes to allow the meat to relax and absorb the cooking juices.
- Greek seasoning is available in the herb and seasoning section of the supermarket.
- Sometimes I use binders such as egg and breadcrumbs in my burger patties and sometimes I don’t. This one is lovely without.
- Make sure the burger patties are at room temperature before you cook them as it affects the way the burgers cook. If you make these hours before you need them just cover and pop in the fridge bringing out about 20 minutes before you want to cook them.
- This recipe was created by Jay Rogers for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder: You can follow Jay at The Moodie Foodie and on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
Chinese five spice pork and roast vanilla pear salad
Serves:
Ingredients
Chinese five spice pork
- 500g pork fillet
- 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp peanut oil (or other vegetable oil)
Roasted vanilla pear salad
- 2 firm pears, peeled, quartered and cored
- 1 orange, juiced
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp Chinese five spice powder
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 head butter lettuce (or any soft leaf lettuce), washed and dried
Method
Rub pork fillet with spice powder and oils and set aside for 15 minutes to marinate.
While pork is marinating, heat oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-forced.
Mix pears with juice, brown sugar, vanilla and Chinese five spice powder.
Place in a 20cm square baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife can be inserted into the pear easily, turning once or twice during cooking.
Cool slightly and remove from the pan.
You should have a lovely syrupy sauce in the bottom of the pan. To this, add the rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, whisking until it is incorporated. This will be your dressing.
After the pears have been cooking for 15 minutes, you can start to cook the pork. Heat a large frying pan to medium-high and add the pork.
Brown on all sides for a couple of minutes before placing frying pan into the oven to cook for 12-15 minutes, until fillet is cooked through.
Remove from oven and allow to rest on a board for 5 minutes before slicing.
Slice each pear quarter in 2 or 3 slices and mix with the lettuce. Divide among 4 plates and top with pork fillet slices. Drizzle over a little of the dressing.
Notes
- I’ve used beurre bosc pears as they hold their shape well during cooking, but use whatever you’ve got. Just make sure they are firm so they don’t fall apart during cooking.
- Roasting the pears gives a lovely intense flavour, but if you just don’t have the time and really need to eat this, cut the pears into smaller segments, mix with the other ingredients and poach them in a large, shallow frying pan.
- Recipe written by Jay Rogers
Serving Suggestions
Note
Vegetable pasties
Serves:
Ingredients
- 1 small orange sweet potato, peeled, coarsely chopped
- 1 small carrot, peeled, finely chopped
- 1 desiree potato, peeled, finely chopped
- half a cup frozen peas
- 125g can corn, rinsed, drained
- half a cup coarsely grated cheddar
- 2 eggs, lightly whisked
- 3 sheets ready-rolled frozen shortcrust pastry, just thawed
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
Method
Preheat oven to 240C.
Line an oven tray with baking paper.
Cook sweet potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Transfer to a heatproof bowl.
Use a fork to mash until smooth. Set aside to cool in bowl.
Cook carrot and potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain well.
Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
Add carrot mixture, peas, corn, cheese and 1 egg to sweet potato and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Use a 12cm-diameter pastry cutter to cut 12 discs from pastry sheets.
Spoon vegetable mixture evenly among pastry discs.
Brush edges of pastry lightly with remaining egg.
Fold pastries in half to enclose filling. Use fingertips to gently press together to seal.
Place on the lined tray and lightly brush with remaining egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Once completely cooled, wrap in baking paper, and store in the fridge ready for the lunchbox.
