Lamb Burgers For Two
I had some ground lamb leftover from the hand pie making adventure I embarked on with Amanda a day or two ago. We just ran out of time and never got to the ground lamb! I’m certainly not going to toss it out, either. So tonight is burger night. Hubs and I just went to Costco the other day to fix the cheese deficit in our house, so I have some goat cheese. Perfect! In fact, I have everything to make it except buns. And lettuce. I’ll fix that today.
A peruse around the intrawebs confirmed my suspicions….goat cheese lamb burgers are indeed a thing. I had, of course, planned on adding carmelized onions and bacon. How does the internet know me so well?! Many of the recipes incorporate mint into the patty. Pass. I want garlicky, not minty. Which reminds me I need to brush my teeth. And of course, I’ll be redoing my fried zucchini the tried and true way….with my breadcumbs. Hmph.
Do you not make your own breadcrumbs? You should. I stopped buying them when I discovered high fructose corn syrup in my favorite brand of Italian breadcrumbs. I looked at the other brands….they all had it, too. Why?! Why does there need to be that junk in there? It’s frustrating. So I just make my own and keep them in the freezer and that’s end of it. I know this a tangent, but I’m so sick and tired of gross things in processed products. It’s infuriating.
And NOW, the food companies have successfully lobbied to get the name of high fructose corn syrup changed to sugar. So when you look at a label and you don’t see high fructose corn syrup on the label? It’s probably still there! It just says sugar now. Jerks.
Back to the burgers….breathe in….breathe out. This particular ground lamb came from our whole lamb we got last lambing season. If you ever get the chance to get a whole lamb, do. It really doesn’t take long to get through a whole one and if you time it right….like during lambing season….you can get an entire lamb for less than half of what you pay for it retail in the grocery store in individual cuts. And the bonus, naturally, is you know where your meat came from.
We’re lucky in Oregon in the sense that we have lamb farmers and mobile butchers. Our meat never sees a giant slaughterhouse and is never trucked anywhere so it has a very low carbon footprint as well. Our lamb didn’t live very far from us and wasn’t raised in a giant production facility type farm. Instead, it was raised on a small family farm on open pasture and, more than likely, by a child in 4-H. Love is delicious.
Lamb Burgers For Two
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1-2 teaspoons ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt of your choice
- 1/2 cup aioli of your choice
- 1 cup baby greens of your choice
- 4 slices cooked bacon
- 1/4 cup goat cheese
- 1 medium red onion sliced thin
- 1 half stick butter
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Start by carmelizing the onions in the butter over medium heat in a saute pan for about 30 minutes, turning the heat to low when the onions start to brown. Add 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar to the onions, stirring frequently.
- Meanwhile, mix the ground lamb with the salt, pepper, the remaining tablesoon of balsamic vinegar, and minced garlic. Form two patties and make indentations into each patty. Fill each indentation with bits of goat cheese and pinch closed.
- Fry the bacon over medium heat and set aside. Fry the patties in the bacon fat, turning only once. Toast the buns and slather with aioli of your choosing. I mixed chopped oven dried tomatoes with mayonnaise.
- Pile all the finished ingredients onto the bun. Enjoy with lots of napkins!
