GYRO BURGERS WITH GREEK SALAD

RACHAEL'S GYRO BURGERS WITH GREEK SALAD
Tzatziki Sauce:
1 cup Yocheese or Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 English cucumber, finely chopped, 4 ounces *
1 tablespoon lemon juice *
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Greek Salad:
1/2 cup peperoncini, sliced, about 2 ounces
1/2 cup kalamata olives, optional
16 grape tomatoes, halved, about 6 ounces
2 ounces red onion, chopped, about 1/2 cup
1 green pepper, chopped, about 4 ounces
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
8 ounces romaine hearts, chopped
1/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled

Burgers:
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound ground lamb
2 sprigs fresh oregano, finely chopped, 4 grams
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup parsley, chopped, 3 grams
1 tablespoon lemon zest, from 1 lemon (see my comments below) *
1 tablespoon olive oil, for frying

Make the tzatziki sauce by combining all the ingredients; let chill for about an hour to blend the flavors. At this point I mixed up all of the salad ingredients except for the lettuce and feta cheese in a large bowl. I thought it would be nice for the vegetables to marinate in the dressing for a bit. I prepared all of my ingredients a couple hours ahead of time but, if you're going to serve this right away, go ahead and toss all of the salad ingredients together to let the flavors blend while cooking the burgers.

Combine the burger ingredients except for the oil in a large bowl. Divide into 6 equal portions and form into patties. Make an indentation in the center of each patty to keep them from puffing up while cooking. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the burgers 5-6 minutes per side or until done to your liking.

If you haven't already done so, toss all of the salad ingredients together. Serve the burgers over the salad and top with tzatziki sauce, using about 1/4 cup sauce per serving.

Makes 6 servings
The burgers can be frozen but not the salad or toppings

* I used 1/2 of a large regular cucumber which I peeled and seeded. You'll need 1 lemon for the entire recipe. One medium lemon will yield about 2 tablespoons juice and 1 tablespoon zest.

Per Serving: 573 Calories; 45g Fat; 32g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 8g Net Carbs

This is from Rachael Ray's TV show. You can see the original recipe here. I had a hard time sorting out which ingredients went with which components of this recipe (you'll see why if you check out the recipe link) and ended up putting 3/4 cup of parsley in my burgers by mistake. It turns out that 1/2 cup of it was meant to go into the salad. Oops! At least parsley has almost no carbs.

I made too many changes to the recipe to list all of them but I'm sure that mine tastes similar to Rachael's. One ingredient I had to omit was the Cavender抯 Greek Seasoning and she used a lot of it. I looked at it in the store and it was loaded with sugar so I didn't buy it. I also left out the olives because I don't care for them. However, they are included in the counts.

This whole meal was delicious and tasted very Greek. The meat reminded me quite a bit of the kind they use in gyros. It even sliced more like roasted meat than ground meat. About the only thing I might change next time is to cut way back on the lemon zest in the burgers. It gave them an authentic Greek flavor but it came on a little too strong. The combination of lamb and turkey was just right. The turkey kept the lamb from being overpowering and was quite a bit cheaper than using all lamb. If you can afford the extra carbs, these burgers would be wonderful sliced and rolled up in low carb pita bread with the tzatziki sauce. The salad could be served on the side. By the way, all that extra parsley in my burgers tasted fine. Click the photo to see a close-up.

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