A family favorite! No one will ever know these turkey mushroom burgers are so good for you! They hide puréed lentils and sautéed mushrooms which not only make them fabulously nutritious but also make them flavorful and moist like a regular beef burger! Who thinks of burgers as a source of fiber? These are! In fact they are a complete meal in and of themselves! The only thing I would say about this recipe is that it is a little time consuming because you have to sauté the mushrooms and purée the lentils but this makes a large batch and I typically freeze half to make another day. It works beautifully! I serve those on my Soft Wheat Buns-YUM!
You may also love my mini BBQ Turkey Burgers and my Vegan Burgers!
Turkey Burger
Ingredients
- 1 lb raw all-natural extra-lean ground turkey
- 1 Tbsp flaxmeal diluted in 3 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp flax meal
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- ¾ tsp salt
- ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp chopped onions
- 2 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 cups sliced raw mushrooms
- 1 cup cooked lentils rinsed and drained
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together first 7 ingredients (all the way through ground black pepper) Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a small non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add the chopped garlic and onions and sauté for a couple minutes, then add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 5-8 minutes until soft.
- Place the cooked mushrooms and cooked drained lentils in the bowl of a food processor and grind until “creamy”.
- Add the lentil/mushroom mixture to the ground turkey mixture and mix thoroughly. It will be “sticky” and that’s just right. You can refrigerate (it also freezes well) at this point until ready to grill (Do not form patties at this point!).
- Drizzle a little canola oil in a large grill pan and heat over high heat. When the pan is very hot, spoon out the ground turkey (about a heaping 1/3 cup per patty) onto the grill pan. Do NOT attempt to shape the patty at this point! Let it sizzle on that side for 2-3 minutes, then flip over and flatten gently with a large spatula and smooth out the edge so that it is circular, and continue to grill for 2-3 minutes on that side.
- Flip the patties over once again until cooked through.
- Serve on whole wheat buns with garnishings and ENJOY!
Grill pan I use to grill my turkey burgers
Hi Catherine, huge thanks for all your hard work on this site. Tried quite a few of your recipes now and just finished devouring this turkey burger. Delicious as always.
Also, big thanks to David for his LinkedIn (and other) articles, always thought provoking and informative. What a team you make!
Thank you so much Alex!! I live to hear that always! I shared your lovely comment with David as well and he was very touched too!
🙂
catherine
My wife made these for me. Absolutely phenomenal. I just wanted to thank you.
TOM, Thank you so much!!! I am so sorry it took me so long to answer you (we had a tornado here in Connecticut and have been dealing with the aftermath, but now are finally back in our house), but I was so touched by your wonderful comment! I LOVE IT!!! 🙂
Hi Catherine, my family enjoyed the turkey burgers a lot- it was a hit, and I’m learning how to cook. These discoveries are very important to me because I have another healthy go-to recipe to add to my list. It’s great. Thanks.
My son, who HATES turkey burgers, said he didn’t love it, but it’s the best turkey burger he’d ever had, and he ate 3/4 of it:)
I thought it was great!
HAHAHA That’s a great review, I’ll take it as a compliment Robin!!:)
YAY!!! That’s the best feedback I could get! I love it when little “finicky” eaters turn around and love something that is so good for them! That makes me SO HAPPY! I am assuming you have seem my stealth mom post where I list others that children particularly love? Also, have you tried the silken chocolate pudding or my crème au chocolat? They both hide lentils, dates and tofu but you wouldn’t never know it. It’s just pure creaminess yummy and she might love it too!
https://cuisinicity.com/silky-chocolate-pudding/
https://cuisinicity.com/baked-chocolate-custard/
Hahah you can tell I get so excited when little ones prefer the healthier dishes and so touched when grandma helps them get there! GOOD for you!!! I LOVE IT! 5 hearts back at you (I wish I could give yo more!)
Just finished making and enjoying your turkey burgers. They were very tasty and moist! My husband was totally surprised that there were lentils hidden inside them. Can hardly wait for my two year old grand daughter to try them. Will definitely make again.
That’s wonderful Diane!!! I can’t wait for your granddaughter to devour them too! Thank you so much for your great comment! I love it!!
Catherine, my two year old grand daughter LOVES them! In fact, my whole family LOVES them! Makes me so happy knowing how good they are for them with all the “secret” ingredients! My grand daughter had been such a good eater. We made and pureed ALL her baby food…and there were very few things she wouldn’t eat. However, sadly, she has turned into a selective eater. So we just continue to offer her a variety of good things to eat with the hope she will eventually like them. In the meantime, we know at least two things she will eat with gusto…these turkey burgers and your pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! Looks like I need to try more of your recipes. Thanks for sharing!
WOW, I just used this recipe again, but made it into a meat loaf instead of the burgers. Using the same ingredients, but added just a little more flax meal, cooked at 350, but think it could have come out in about 45 mins instead of the hour that I used. Also, I might have put in to much flax meal, as I didn’t measure just did an eye ball thing, (you know, that GUY thing) . That was so tasty and did not even add ketchup which I usually put in my ML. What a great taste and great recipe.
Rob
YAY Rob!!! That’s fantastic!!! I do love this recipe as a meatloaf too, and I love that you added even more flax meal, even in your “guy” way!! I actually have a simpler quicker recipe for meatloaf that I haven’t posted yet because I am still toying with the perfect oven temperature to time ratio before I do, but it too has the pureed lentils that I think make this one so moist! I LOVE that you are experimenting with the recipes! Thank you for this wonderful comment!
I tried this recipe on Friday, wow, what a difference adding these ingredients, the burgers were great we really enjoyed and will continue to use this recipe from now on, thank you Rob
Hi Deb, I just found out Target carried them so they should be available near you. I posted the link on my “Goodness of Lentils” blog from last week. YAY!
I couldn’t find beluga lentils, so I used the French. 1/3 cup worked out just right. The burgers were moist as promised, and not at all tough. They are very similar in taste and texture to a chicken burger recipe I’ve been using for a while now. But with lentils instead of bread crumbs, and mustard/tomato paste instead of mayo, yours are that much healthier without compromising taste and texture. They stretched a pound of turkey into six full-size burgers — another plus, especially since they are streched with vegetables instead of starch. They’re very easy to make and good with or without a bun. Catherine, thank you for answering all my questions so graciously.
All the best,
Deb
Deb, it is truly my pleasure! With such thoughtful positive feedback as yours, I couldn’t ask for more! Keep’em coming! I thank you!
OK, I did it!
Thanks Catherine! I’m putting beluga lentils on my shopping list. I just noticed something else (so sorry) — In the paragraph above the ingredient list, it says you need 1/2 cup cooked lentils, but the ingredients show 1 cup. Is the asterisk a reference to the paragraph?
The 1 cup cooked lentils is what you want to end up with. I am so sorry for the confusion in the little note. The black beluga lentils are more dense which is why you need to cook a little less of them dry to make the full cup, cooked. I fixed the wording in the note hoping that will help. Thank you so much for catching that discrepancy!
Yes Good catch! I decided to do away with that 1 Tbsp of water I used to add, and I just forgot to take it out in the instructions. I’ll go fix that right now!! thank you so much!
Turkey burgers I’ve tried have always been tough and dry, so I look forward to trying these with homemade whole grain buns. But first I have a question for you on step 3. “Place the cooked mushrooms, cooked drained lentils and water in the bowl of a food processor…” What water is that? I don’t see an amount. Thank you for sharing your recipes!