You can’t beat a nice juicy burger with a creamy coleslaw! I would live on this if it wasn’t so fattening and didn’t have more calories than a bargain bucket from the colonel. Being conscious of the food I eat, coupled with my ambition in the kitchen, I have come up with a healthier alternative to make one of my favorite foods.
Ingredients You’ll Need
500g of lean steak mince
250g of low fat greek/natural yogurt
½ of a white cabbage
½ of a red onion
2 carrots
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
Low salt/sugar seasoning (I used barbecue seasoning from Penzeys; these guys are a US company). You can season these burgers with anything really, but be aware that many ready-made seasonings are loaded with salt and sugar.
Fresh Parsley
Ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic
Chili oil.
Make The Coleslaw FIRST
Ok, Coleslaw is a great way to get some veggies into your diet. Normally, however, it is quite high in calories as it is made with mayonnaise (even reduced fat mayonnaise is pretty high in calories).
We are still going to have a creamy tasty coleslaw but it is going to be made with low fat natural yogurt. This transforms the coleslaw from a half-hearted attempt at eating something that is merely okay for you into a protein-packed health food!
First thing to do is get your V-slice or grater out. I use a V slice, as it is an awesome bit of kit, and you can make your coleslaw and loads of other things literally within seconds!
Step 1
Grab a big mixing bowl, and slice up the onion using the grater or V-slice. Once this is done, take a small handful of the onion out of the bowl and save it elsewhere for later.
Step 2
Slice up the cabbage and carrots (I don’t bother peeling the carrots) into the mixing bowl containing the onion.
Step 3
Throw in the yogurt and pepper to the mix. Now, you can finely chop the parsley. I like to go pretty finely chopped with the parsley but you can have it coarser if you prefer. Throw the parsley into the bowl as well. I also like to add a drizzle of chili oil at this point — not too much — just a drizzle.
Step 4
Thoroughly mix up the content in your bowl. If you need to add more yogurt at this point, go ahead. Once this is mixed up well, put it in the fridge to stand. I have found that this step activates all the flavors.
Making The Burgers
Step 1
When making burgers, I find it is best not to handle the meat too much or it will become a bit tough. So get another mixing bowl, put the meat in, and separate the pieces.
Step 2
Chop the garlic as finely as you like and add it to the meat; add the tomato puree, and the onion that you saved from earlier. Also, you can now add your seasoning. You can get creative here, but, as I said before, if you are on a calorie-controlled diet, you need to be conscious of what type of things you are adding. For example, I have tried these with peanut butter before. Yes, this does sound strange, but they were like satay burgers, and not too bad. This obviously boosted the calories considerably.
Step 3
Get busy and mix it up! Remember that the more you handle the mixture, the tougher it will become. But it is important to get all of the seasoning distributed evenly.
Step 4
Mould the mixture into a big round ball. Half it, and then half it again. This should give you FOUR even “blobs” of mince.
Step 5
Make these blobs of mince into small balls, and squash them until they are about 0.5 inches thick. If you have a burger press, great! Use that.
Step 6
This is an optional tip to reduce the fat content a little bit more. Grab a baking tray and cover with tin foil (if you want to save yourself the dish wash). Then, get a “wire rack” — normally from your grill pan — and place this over the top of the baking tray and tinfoil. Then, put the burgers onto the wire rack. You should have something looking similar to this.
The result is that it will cook out the excess fat. The burgers will not be sitting in their own fat, which will reduce the calories that little bit more.
Step 7
Put the burgers into a pre-heated oven at 180 Celsius / gas mark 4 for around 25 – 30 minutes. This may vary on different ovens, so, after the first 25 minutes, cut one of the burgers in half and see if it is still pink in the middle.
Step 8
Once these are well cooked, you can serve on a bun, or with a jacket potato, to add some more carbs if needed
Nom nom nom! If you give this a go, and wish to let me know how it turned out, please leave a comment. If you are more experienced with these things and you realise I have missed something out, pleas email me.
Happy cooking, and good luck!