It’s another Monday post of the Food Matters Project. This week we’re hosting the recipe, and have chosen Mark Bittman’s Brown Rice and Lamb Burgers with Spinach, from The Food Matters Cookbook.
To catch up all of our readers, we joined the Food Matters Project with these fellow bloggers last winter. Each week we have a new host, who chooses a recipe from The Food Matters Cookbook. The recipes are your own interpretation, and it’s great to see the creativity from all of the blogging participants. To read more about the project, check out the web site here, and this is our schedule. We’d love to have you join in!
Sam and I had hosted one dish so far on Fifth Floor Kitchen. Almost exactly a year ago we hosted the Vegetables au Vin with Coq. If you’d like to see the rest of our recipe interpretations, check out this list.
To host our 2nd recipe we chose another delicious one, although as always, we did make some changes. As you all know, we recently moved from a condo to a house. One of the bigger changes (aside from having more space and a bigger kitchen), is that we can finally have a grill! Our fantastic realtor, Peter Raia, got us a wonderful housewarming gift- a new grill! What perfect timing to enjoy a burger, especially since yesterday DC had amazing weather- sunny and in the 60’s!
How did we change the recipe from Mark Bittman’s original? First, we added a tzatziki sauce, rather than using feta cheese. We also used less rice (he had 1 cup) and more onion (1 whole one). The biggest change is he did not use burger buns as we did, instead he placed each burger on the bed of spinach (and more of it, 1 lb). Check out what creative ideas other bloggers came up with here.
Rice & Lamb Burgers with Spinach & Tzatziki Sauce
Inspired & Adapted from: The Food Matters Cookbook
Servings: 4 patties
Tzatziki Sauce
16 oz plain Greek yogurt
9 sprigs of mint leaves
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1/4 lemon
1 cucumber, peeled
Spinach
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
Burger Patties
1 1/4 lb ground lamb
1/4 cup cooked rice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground sumac
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 burger buns
To make the tzatziki sauce, blend together the Greek yogurt, mint, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Also add in 3/4 of the cucumber and puree it. Scoop out the tzatziki sauce into a bowl. Chop the remaining 1/4 cucumber, and add it into the bowl, stir. The sauce can be made ahead of time, and actually tastes great when it’s served cold.
To make the spinach, add the olive oil to a large skillet and allow to heat up. Once the olive oil is hot, then add the spinach to the pan. Stir occasionally until the spinach begins to soften and wilt, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan.
To make the burgers, mix the following ingredients in a mixing bowl: ground lamb, cooked rice, garlic, red onion, cumin, sumac, salt, and pepper. Mix the ingredients together and form 4 patties. These can be made ahead of time, or be added onto a grill right away. Grill to 6-8 minutes on each side, depending on your preference of cooked meat. If you do not have a grill, you can still make these on a skilled over medium-high heat, cooking the patties for about the same time until they are cooked through.
To make the burgers, place some spinach on the bun, then the burger patty. Lastly, drizzle with tzatziki sauce. Feel free to add tomato or onion slices. Enjoy!
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