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Recipes

Homemade Turkey Burgers

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These Homemade Turkey Burgers aren’t like the dried out, breaded discs you might be used to. Let’s face it, that’s what comes to mind when you think of turkey burgers, isn’t it? The frozen Bernard Matthews guys kids were fed in the 90s. I’m not sure what kids are fed these days, but I imagine there’s a bit less of that sort of thing around – or maybe not given Farmfoods is alive and well. I digress.

These turkey burgers are different. They’re just like beef burgers, only they’re leaner, and of course they taste like turkey rather than beef. To me, they’re a little bit more sophisticated, and I’m convinced turkey mince has a more umami flavour than beef mince, which can often taste quite fatty and salty. Turkey mince also takes on other flavours a lot better than beef mince. You can buy turkey breast mince, or turkey thigh mince, and I would suggest using the thigh mince, or perhaps mixing a packet of each together. Turkey is very lean, so you should get a juicier burger if you use at least half thigh mince. And it’s still going to be better for you than fatty beef mince (not that I shy away from beef mince – in fact, you can catch my homemade beef burger recipe here).

Oh, and you can skip the chopped onion too. It’s just going to make the burgers break up. It’s much tastier to add some onions sautéed in balsamic vinegar on top of the cooked burger.

If you’ve ever made homemade burgers (unless you’ve used any of our recipes!) you’ll probably be used to including breadcrumbs and an egg to ‘bind’ them, right? It’s a common misconception that both of those are essential for stopping your burgers sticking together, but really they’re just padding – a way to make the burgers look bigger or help the meat go a bit further. There’s no need for any of that. Which, incidentally, means that this recipe can be dairy and gluten-free (provided the mustard and ketchup you use are as well, or course). You know how we feel about the ‘free from’ movement, but accept that there are people who genuinely have coeliac disease or a dairy allergy, and they should be allowed to have some delicious food too.

You can stick them in a white, spongey bun, or slice them up for a wrap or pitta, or you can skip the bread altogether. I quite like them with ginger and spring onion noodles, cous cous, or even a salad (but let’s face it, who really wants salad when they can have carbs instead?).

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Homemade Turkey Burgers

Homemade Turkey Burgers

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 thumb sized piece fresh ginger
  • 3 roasted peppers (from a jar)
  • 3 spring onions
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 packet turkey thigh mince
  • oil, for frying

Instructions

  1. Grate the garlic and ginger together and put in a bowl. Pat the jarred peppers dry with a paper towel and finely chop them, then add to the bowl.
  2. Finely chop the spring onions and add to the bowl along with the spices and sauces.
  3. Now, grab the mince and stick that in the bowl too.
  4. I'm afraid you're going to have to get your hands dirty here. Mix it all together and that's your burger mixture.
  5. Grab a large frying pan and add the oil to it. While it's heating, form the mince mixture into burger patties.
  6. Now fry them on both sides, turning frequently until cooked through. If you're worried about how cooked they're going to be in the middle you can always stick them on a tray in the oven for 10 minutes.
  7. Now, serve up and enjoy!
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If you like the sound of these, why not try our Turkey Bolognese, Turkey Meatballs, Chilli Con Turkey or Turkey Tacos?

Recipes

Chorizo, Pepper and Potato Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

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This chorizo, pepper and potato tortilla (Spanish omelette to the uninitiated) is the perfect dish for one of those nights (or lunchtimes) when you don’t have much of anything to make a meal out of.  Due to extensive flooding, we found ourselves delayed in being able to get to the supermarket this week, but thankfully we have the remains of a large sack of potatoes kicking about, and we always try to keep eggs, peppers and chorizo in the house (among other things like onions, sweet potatoes and garlic) so we came up with this creation.  Neither of us has had a Spanish Omelette/Tortilla before, but as far as we’re concerned, you can’t go far wrong with chorizo, peppers and potatoes so it was most definitely worth a shot.

I did a quick bit of Googling, and of course there are a number of schools of thought as to how one of these should be made, most of which involved cooking it entirely on the hob, flipping it over halfway through, and knowing how useless I am when flipping pancakes, the grill option seemed to make much more sense.  And we’re all about making things easy.

So here it goes: dig in and let us know what you think.

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Chorizo, Pepper and Potato Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

Chorizo, Pepper and Potato Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

Ingredients

  • 6 medium potatoes
  • 1 cooking chorizo or about 1/3 of a cooking chorizo ring
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 red pepper
  • 6 eggs
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • grated cheese, optional but delicious
  • 1 tbsp or so olive oil

Instructions

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes - not too finely, and chuck the slices into a large frying pan, covered with salted water. Let them simmer, topping up the water if it dries out before the potato slices are nice and tender.
  2. When cooked, remove from the pan and add the oil. Now fry the potato slices, half at a time, until lightly golden. Remove and set aside for now.
  3. Slice the onion and fry until soft, then set aside.
  4. slice the chorizo into pound coin sized pieces and half each piece, then fry those off until just turning crisp.
  5. Mop up some of the fat, and beat the eggs together in a jug along with parsley and seasoning.
  6. Layer the potato slices in the pan with the onion, chorizo and pepper slices (they'll cook enough in the pan) then gently pour over the egg, letting it fill in the gaps. Turn your grill or oven up high.
  7. Let the pan sit over a low to medium heat, letting the egg gently set, like you're making a regular omelette.
  8. Slide the pan under the grill while the egg on top is still raw. Leave it there for a couple of minutes then remove and sprinkle on the cheese. Put it back under the grill until the cheese is melted and turning golden then carefully remove and set the pan on a worktop saver. Try not to leave it under the grill for any longer than you have to, as the eggs will turn rubbery.
  9. Slice up and serve with peas or salad and enjoy!
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Healthy, Midweek Meals, Recipes, Uncategorized

Beef and Mushroom Stir Fry

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When I was in Morrisons last weekend, I spotted some oyster mushrooms and couldn’t possibly have left without buying some. They are expensive though so use sparingly! I also bought some quick fry sandwich steak (3 pieces for £3.30 which made two meals for one greedy person). I also used some of my usual stock vegetables and some tender stem broccoli, as it was only 89p for a change. 

  
There are quite a few ingredients in this guy, such as mirin and rice wine, but you can pick them up relatively inexpensively in most supermarkets or Chinese supermarkets, abs once you have them in your cupboard they’ll help you out with a multitude of other oriental recipes (and by that time they’ll feel like they are free flavour). So, there might be a  bit of an outlet but just go for it….

You will need (to feed 1) (although you can use whichever vegetables and protein you like):

1tbsp mirin

1 tbsp shaohsing rice wine

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp light soy sauce 

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tbsp ginger, grated

Dash sesame oil

Splash groundnut oil for frying with

Half white onion

Half red pepper

Small carrot

4 florets of tenderstem broccoli

Handful of oyster (or other) mushrooms

Strips of your favourite stir fry beef, I used 1 1/2 quick fry steaks 

Rice or noodles to serve 

  
1. Chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Grate the ginger and garlic. 

  
2. Add the ginger and wet ingredients into a bowl and mix together. This part can be done in advance if you like, but it doesn’t take long. 

  
3. Slice the beef into strips and place in the marinade. This should be done at least 10 minutes before you plan to fry the beef which, incidentally, should also be out of the fridge for 20 minutes or so before you plan to cook it.

  
4. Heat a large pan or wok on a high heat and add the oil. Chuck in the onions and allow them to start to break down a little. Although I like my carrots to be crunchy and fresh, I prefer onions and peppers to be a relatively softened, and I can’t deal with raw broccoli! The cooking times are entirely customisable to your vegetable crispness preferences. 

5. Once the onions have started to soften, turn the heat down to medium and add in the peppers, carrots and garlic, stirring occasionally so that nothing burns, then add the broccoli and allow all of those to simmer. 

  
6. Once the vegetables have almost reached your desired level of cookedness, push them to the side, turn up the heat and add another splash of oil. If you’re having dried noodles, they should be ready to go on by now too as they will only take a few minutes and will be reheated in the pan. 

7. Add the beef strips, a few at a time, trying not to introduce too much of the marinade to the pan. This will only lead to the beef boiling, which will leave it chewy. When just cooked on one side, turn onto the other and add the mushrooms to the vegetable side. Stir everything together.

  
8. Add the noodles and the marinade and stir through until everything is hot and combined, being careful not to overdo the beef. 

 Serve and enjoy!

Healthy, Lifestyle, Midweek Meals, Recipes, Uncategorized

Oatcakes 

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This weekend my culinary repertoire was added to by another something I can’t believe I’ve never tried to bake before; oatcakes. Despite being on a big old attempt at a health kick ahead of my friend’s wedding, I treated myself to some snoked duck pâté as a lunchtime treat and accompaniment to salad (you have to take a break from roast chicken occasionally!), so I was looking for something to spread it on without breaking any of my new rules. Although this recipe contains white flour (although I suppose wholemeal would work if you cared enough) , the main ingredient is lovely, fibrous, sustaining oats, with a few seeds to add some good oils and to ramp up the texture and flavour. You can add whichever seeds you like or leave them out if you’d prefer. 

  

You will need: (makes approx. 14 medium oatcakes)

50g butter

100g oats 

100g plain flour

2 tsp sesame seeds

2 tsp pumpkin seeds, chopped 

  
1. Heat the oven to 180C fan. 

2. Gently melt the butter in a saucepan and allow to cool.

  
3. If your oats are large, you may want to grind them up a little in a pestle and mortar. I used a mixture of slightly ground and whole. Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl then pour on the butter and mix well. 

4. Add 5-6 tbsp boiling water until it comes together as a dry dough. 

  
5. Roll out as thinly or thickly as you prefer and cut with a cutter or knife into your preferred shape. Roll up the remnants and repeat.

  
6. Place on greaseproof paper on a tray in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until starting to brown.

  

These give off a glorious smell when baking once those seeds and oats start to toast. This recipe takes no time at all and I will definitely be repeating it!

  
Delicious and crunchy with cheese or pâté and a great lunchtime base that will keep you fed and fuelled for an early evening workout.