Clean and Lean - Turkey Burgers

Turkey can often be seen as a drab and boring meat. It's bad reputation is down to the tendency to over cook it on Christmas day and then be forced to eat leftovers for weeks afterwards. It's a shame really because turkey is lean, cheap and can be very tasty!

I actually bought all of the ingredients for these burgers from Lidl making them exceptionally cheap compared to many meat-based dishes. The turkey wasn't super lean but at half the price of Sainsbury's I didn't mind a couple of extra % of fat!

I was actually really pleased with how these turned out, they were quite refreshing which is an odd word to use to talk about a turkey burger but the lime zing really came through. I'd definitely reccomend giving them a go.

Turkey Burgers - adapted from James Duigan

Ingredients:

• 400g turkey mince
• juice from 2 limes
• 2 lemon grass stalks, bashed
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• 5 spring onions

1. Chop the spring onions and a small amount of the lemongrass and put into a large bowl. Smash the stalks of the lemongrass with a knife. (The recipe calls for 4 stalks of lemongrass but that sounds like far too much for me as I'm not a great fan).
   
2. Add the turkey mince and squeeze the lime juice over the mix. Combine with your hands and leave to marinade for 30 minutes in the fridge.
   
3. Run your hands under cold water and shape the mixture into patties - I made 4. 
   
4. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and then cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side. 
5. Serve - the book suggests wrapping the burgers in lettuce and serving with oven roast veg. I opted for sweet potato mash and grilled asparagus - yummy!

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Turkey and Dill Meatballs

The Book People come into my workplace one every month or so and although they don't bring a massive range of book with them they always have some decent cookery books. Since we are trying to be Clean & Lean (apart from when we're stuffing our faces with teacakes) The Superfood Diet book caught my eye so I went for it.

The book is lovely with plenty of great recipes and photographs so I'd recommend it. This is the first recipe we've made from it so far and it's great - just don't expect it to taste like your regular meatballs! The only thing odd is that this recipe says it make 15 meatballs but unless you're after balls the size of your face you can make them much smaller and I managed to get 24 meatballs, two nights worth of dinner.

Ingredients:

• 500g turkey mince
• 1 chopped medium onion
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of chopped dill
• 100g sushi rice, cooked and chilled
• 500ml Pasata
• 2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon oil
• Salt and Pepper to season

1. Preheat the oven to 200c
2. Put the mince, onion, egg, dill, seasoning and sushi rice into a large bowl and mix together using your hands - don't be shy.
   
3. Roll into 24 meatballs and place into two casserole dishes. Cover one with cling film and leave in the fridge for the next evening. 
   
   
   
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, fry until light brown.
5. Add the passata and bring to a simmer, season to taste.
6. Pour half of the tomato mix on top of the meatballs and place into the oven for 45 minutes. Decant the other half into a container for the following day.
   
7. Remove from oven, serve up over wholemeal pasta.

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