Give Me Your Non-Beef Burger Recipes

It is a sad, sad day.  I mentioned a couple weeks ago, that I had realized that beef kinda doesn’t like me.  Totally makes my body’s inflammatory response kick in.  Which, hey, kinda sucks, but I’m willing to tolerate a temporary weight gain of a couple of days to have a good steak or burger.

This morning I’m sitting here feeling about like I’ve been hit by a truck after last night’s beef stir fry (which wasn’t even GOOD…I screwed up the sauce).  This is not merely feeling uncomfortably bloated, I feel BAD.  Like too tired to get up and exercise this morning.  Which makes me want to cry, y’all, because I cannot tell you how much I really love beef.  Burgers are practically a sacred event in our house.  But my body doesn’t lie, and I really need to limit my beef consumption.

:eyes weekend which begins with steak dinner for MIL’s birthday tonight, cookout with burgers on Saturday, and carne asada for a Cinco de Mayo party on Sunday:

Um.  Yeah.

We’d make good Texans.

Sunday’s easy enough.  I’ll just prepare some chicken in the same kind of marinade as the carne asada and we’ll have both.  And I can pick up a pack of non-beef hot dogs for tomorrow.  Tonight I’ll eat steak.  And maybe I’ll have enough self restraint (or lingering blah) not to eat the whole damn thing.

At some point, I want to pick up some organic beef to try, to see if it’s truly the beef or if it’s something IN the beef (NOT thinking about Food, Inc. right now…).  But moving forward, I’m going to have to come up with some alternatives.  As Susan (who went pretty much vegetarian some time ago) put it, the trick to alterna-burgers is to appreciate them for what they are, not what you want them to be–non beef that tastes like beef.  Which is true.

But I want to find some kind of burger that will satisfy a CRAVING for a BURGER.  I’m not talking veggie patties (although I do have a great recipe for black bean burgers).  I’m thinking, turkey, chicken, maybe pork.  My few forays into this arena in the past have not gone particularly well.  No doubt because hubby and I wanted beef, damn it.  Turkey burgers have tended to be flavorless and DRY, and I haven’t sorted out any kind of recipe or level of seasoning for something like that.

So HIT ME with your best alterna-burger recipes.  I’m not fool enough to think I’ll be able to put this past hubby (although, honestly, when you use that much A1, do you still actually taste the meat underneath?), so it’ll probably be mostly for me, something I cook alongside burgers for the normal people.

BRING IT ON!

13 thoughts on “Give Me Your Non-Beef Burger Recipes

  1. I made some delicious turkey burgers before Easter.
    Get some turkey mince, mix it with egg, breadcrumbs and chopped onion…and some maple syrup for yumminess. Then get palm sized balls of the mixture and flatten it in the frying pan to cook. Viola 🙂

  2. Have you tried eating beef that is grass fed AND grass finished?

    My mom had same issue and after some research switched to that and she’s fine. It could be that the beef you’re eating is soy/grain fed and it’s causing inflammation.

  3. There’s an Amy’s frozen dinner that I like that uses quinoa to make their “meat”balls instead of actual meat. It’s really tasty. I know one of my friends made burger patties with quinoa, but I can’t find the recipe.

  4. What Gabryyl said, and also…

    You can actually get ground turkey, to season/shape/cook like ground beef. If it’s a choice between regular ground beef or ground turkey, I actually prefer the turkey.

    One thing I like are turkey taco burgers. You take ground turkey, mix in taco seasoning, make burgers out of it, and put taco toppings on it. (Salsa/guacamole/sour cream instead of ketchup/mustard/horseradish sauce, cheddar cheese, etc.)

  5. Sadly, I’m not much help. I’m a beef eater like you. I would rather go without meat entirely than eat turkey burgers, etc. I bought some pumpernickel bread and several different kinds of cheese to have for lunch so I won’t be tempted to eat so much beef. I’m trying to “tame” my digestive system.

    I think the idea of trying organic beef is good. It might just be what they’re putting in the beef that’s the problem. Wouldn’t it be great if that was the problem?

  6. Several years ago, I switched to using mostly locally produced organic meats like beef, buffalo, elk & venison. I’ve been much healthier, less bloated and lost weight. I buy my meat at www(dot)nicholyn(dot)com/ – actually, I go to their store which is nearby. My nutritionist recommended them. I know that’s inconvenient for you but you may have something similar in your area. Check your local farmer’s market. That website has a catalog of what they carry as well as descriptions about how the meat is raised, You might want to check it out so you know what to look for.
    I particularly like buffalo but be warned, most of these meats cook about 30% faster than supermarket beef because of the lower fat content. Buffalo burgers rule!

    1. I’ve had buffalo burgers out west. Delicious. Our local farmer’s market doesn’t carry meat. We live in a very small town. I know there are local farmers who will individually sell part of a cow, but presently I don’t have enough freezer space for that. Certainly the preference would be for organic and locally produced, but budgetary constraints prevent that from being an easily achievable goal.

      1. I also live in a small town: Barrie Ontario, population about 100,000 – an hour’s drive north of Toronto. The market I mentioned is located on a farm in a country setting and really only serves our local area since it’s not on a major highway where the weekend cottage traffic would be likely to find it. I’m just suggesting that there may be something similar in your area but you may need to do a bit of searching to find it. The meat is a bit more expensive but I don’t use as much of it. I don’t have a separate freezer, I pick up enough for several weeks and put it in the freezer in my fridge.

  7. This idea doesn’t completely get rid of the beef, but does limit it. A couple years ago, my spouse and I started mixing our ground turkey with ground beef, about 50/50. It tastes just like regular ground beef in burgers, tacos, meatloaf, etc. and the texture is great as long as you mix the two meats together well.

  8. Ha! I am now current! ::gives time machine back to Dr. Who::

    No burgers…sacrilege. I refuse to participate. Good luck though.

  9. Okay, do yourself a favor and google “Oprah’s turkey burger recipe”. It’s odd and has a lot of weird things in it (I don’t put the parsley in, because then it tastes too much like meatloaf to me.), but it is the BEST turkey burger recipe I’ve ever had. So good!!!

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