Greek Turkey Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce ?

        January is all about making easy swaps in the kitchen to prepare dinners that are a bit more healthful—but still cure your cravings.

I mean, I love, love, love a great quinoa salad, and I’m totally down with eating my favorite egg white fritatta nearly every day of the week. And a 10-minute salmon dinner? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But when the burger cravings strike during my New Year-mindful-mode, and I’m somehow able to harness the willpower not to make my favorite garlic burgers, I turn to this burger recipe instead.

Again this year I’m happy to create and share recipes as a Kroger blogging ambassador where I’m featuring all sorts of products from Kroger grocery stores for my family, and for yours.

The Simple Truth line from Kroger are an array of products you’ll find throughout the store that are either organic or natural, and are free from 101 artificial ingredients and preservatives. That alone makes them very easy to fit into nearly every meal I make.

This recipe marries two of my favorite things: Burgers and Greek-inspired flavors. Whether it’s pasta, salads or even slow-cooker breakfasts, I just can’t seem to get enough of Mediterranean flavors.

Natural ground turkey is the base of this recipe. I like the Simple Truth brand because while low-fat, it isn’t fat free so it still has flavor and is always fresh in the meat case.
Since there is so little fat in this meat, I add an egg yolk and some olive oil to the turkey mix as binders so they don’t fall apart when grilling.
The med-inspired fla
vors are pretty classic. Fresh chopped spinach I buy already washed and stemmed (such a time-saver), sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and feta cheese are all added to the mix.

While many meatballs, meatloafs and any other meat-ish dish that call for eggs as a binder are simply cracked right into the mix, I prefer to whisk my egg separately in a bowl with the oregano, garlic (I prefer it pressed rather than minced) with the salt and pepper. Then, I add it to the burger mix to make a more homogenous blend by forgoing a fork and simply digging my hands straight into the mix.

They’re gonna get dirty anyway while shaping the patties so why not just go for it now?

I refrigerate my burgers for at least an hour after shaping them to firm up and hold up when cooking. You could also prepare these and let them rest in the fridge before cooking/grilling for up to 2 days.

The next level of Greek flavor comes from a garlicky tzatziki sauce, making it a great sub for mayo, ketchup, or mustard. I prefer to make my sauce and then refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes so the flavors meld.

And to avoid a slippery sauce, don’t forget to squeeze the water from the grated cucumber before mixing.

These burgers can be cooked inside on a non-stick grill pan or outside on a traditional grill. Be sure to oil your grates well if you’re cooking outside so the burger doesn’t stick due to that low-fat thing again.

Whole wheat buns garnished with butter lettuce and sliced red onion complete this burger outfit, but if you’re diligently watching the carbs or looking for gluten-free options, these are just as delicious served protein-style and wrapped in a lettuce leaf as a bun.