Twist on a summer fave: Bunless burgers
Most people dream about great burgers whenever they fire up the grill. After all, what could be a more perfect example of the allAmerican pleasures of outdoor cooking, especially for Fourth of July festivities? But more and more people are trying to eat leaner food these days, especially during swimsuit season, which often leads them to limit their red meat intake.
The latest diet fads also add to such special demands. In the early days of the Atkins diet, that meant avoiding burger buns to cut carbohydrates. Nowadays, there’s the so-called paleo diet, so named because it calls for eating only foods that humans ate during the Paleolithic Era.
That means only ingredients that could have been hunted or gathered and prepared without processing, meaning nothing featuring grains, sugar or other processed foods. (Not very different from Atkins, is it?)
So, is there such a thing as a lean paleo burger?
My answer is yes, and you’ll find a delicious example of it in my recipe for turkey burgers in grilled portobello mushroom “buns.” I put quotes around that last word because, in place of bread buns, I substitute grilled portobello mushroom caps, which — when you think about it for even a second — are very much the same shape as a burger bun and seem perfectly made to enclose a burger patty. What right-thinking Paleolithic gatherer wouldn’t have picked a few had he or she come across them?
To satisfy meat lovers who want to cut back on their beef intake, I use ground turkey for this recipe. Many people find it as satisfying as beef, especially when you use a mix of dark and white meat and ask your butcher to grind it coarsely for a more satisfying texture. (Feel free to substitute chicken ground in the same way.) To add even more flavor, I mix the turkey with roasted garlic cloves as well as a touch of extra-virgin olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste.
I find these bunless burgers every bit as satisfying, and possibly even more flavorful, than the classic kind. The only drawback I can think of is that the juicy mushrooms will make your fingers a bit messier than a drysurfaced bread bun. So you may want to use a knife and fork instead; or just pick it up and have plenty of napkins close at hand.