Spinach and Feta Chicken Burgers (aka Spanakopita Burgers) with Grilled Halloumi, Roasted Red Peppers and a Spinach and Feta Sauce

Spanakopita is a tasty Greek phyllo spinach and feta pie and I was thinking that the flavours would also be amazing in burger form; just perfect for summer grilling! I kept the patties nice and simple and yet packed them with flavour starting out using chicken for the base, though turkey would also be good, and I mixed in plenty of spinach and feta, along with some dill and green onions. Now these spinach and feta patties are super tasty just like this and I could easily eat them alone, or in burgers with lettuce, tomato and red onion as I had planned but I could not resist kicking things up a bit.

First off, I feel that every good burger should have bacon but it did not really fit the theme of these burgers so I went for the next best thing, grilled halloumi, which is almost as good as bacon and also an ingredient commonly seen in Mediterranean cuisine. Up next was a no brainer, roasted red peppers; and with that I thought that I was done but something kept nagging me... where was the cheese sauce? <spookyvoice>This burger needs a cheese sauce...</spookyvoice> Alright so I added a cheese sauce, a spanakoptia themed cheese sauce, starting with a bechamel base adding plenty of melted feta along with spinach and dill. With that final component my spanakoptia themed burgers, aka my spinach and feta chicken burgers with grilled halloumi, roasted red peppers and a spinach and feta sauce, were complete!

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Moussaka Burgers

With the long weekend coming up I have been thinking about grilling and in particular about these moussaka burgers. Moussaka is a tasty Mediterranean dish that is typically made with layers of eggplant, meat, a tomato sauce and a cheese bechamel sauce and I have been wanting to try making burgers with these flavours for a while now. I started the burgers off by making a tomato sauce with the hints of cinnamon and allspice that moussaka often has and then I moved on to make a simple bechamel sauce with plenty of melted melted cheese. Up next were the patties which I kept nice and simple, once again seasoning with hints of cinnamon and allspice, and the last component was slices of eggplant that I grilled along with the patties.

All said and done these burgers are amazingly good and they definitely taste like moussaka, only better! These burgers take a bit of time to make but you can easily make the sauces and patties a day ahead and then just warm the sauces and grill the patties and eggplant of the day of your get together with minimal effort. I served the moussaka burgers with a fresh Greek salad.

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Teriyaki Shrimp Burgers with Grilled Pineapple Salsa, Bacon and Blue Cheese

I have been completely enamored by homemade shrimp burgers ever since I first tried them a short while ago and since they have been on my mind a lot I had to make some more! One combo that I particularly enjoy is juicy shrimp and a sweet and salty teriyaki sauce which goes fantastically well when wrapped in bacon and grilled on skewers along with some sweet and tangy pineapple and I was thinking that a burger version would be amazing! I kept the shrimp patties pretty simple with large chunks of shrimp, a few seasoning including garlic, ginger, sesame oil and teriyaki sauce, in addition to some breadcrumbs to help hold things together. Although you could easily use a store bought teriyaki sauce it is so easy to make your own and doing so gives you the opportunity to customize it for the dish that you are using it in like in this case where you use pineapple juice. I filled the burgers out with some bacon and instead of using slices of grilled pineapple I kicked things up a bit and went with a grilled pineapple salsa. I often like to include a cheese in my burgers and after thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion that a touch of creamy blue cheese would go perfectly well with all of the other flavours going on in these burgers! I might just have found my new all time favourite burgers in these teriyaki shrimp burgers with pineapple salsa, bacon and blue cheese and I have to admit that I made them two times last week!

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Pad Thai Shrimp Burgers

My next tasty new burger this grilling season is inspired by the flavours of shrimp pad Thai, aka shrimp pad Thai burgers. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of pad Thai and I always enjoy using pad Thsi flavours in different dishes and with burgers being on my mind a lot lately it struck me to combine the two. Pad Thai, a stir-fried noodle dish, can be made with any meat but my favourite has to be shrimp and a shrimp burger patty sounded like a fabulous idea. When I think of a shrimp burger I think of large chunks of juicy succulent shrimp bursting in your mouth with every bite and not some kind of texture-less shrimp patty so I decided to start with some fairly large shrimp and to cut them into a few big pieces. The only question was how to hold those large chunks of shrimp together and the obvious solution seemed to be to grind up a small portion of the shrimp in a food processor and to use shrimp to hold the shrimp chunks together. I do not really like to use 'fillers' like egg and breadcrumbs in burger patties so these shrimp burgers are simply large chunks of shrimp held together by some shrimp paste along with a few pad Thai flavours including garlic, shallots, fish sauce, lime zest and cilantro.

Up next was the condiments for the pad Thai burgers and I had to start with the sauce. Pad Thai is normally made with a tasty sauce consisting of sour tamarind, sweet sugar, salty fish sauce and spicy chilies so that is where I started but this sauce is a little too thick for what I wanted so I thinned it down a bit with the addition of some coconut milk. I could have stopped there with the sauce but I could not resist adding some peanut butter, which is not commonly used in pad Thai, but since pad Thai is often topped with chopped peanuts I figured adding some more peanut flavour could only make things better. I filled the pad Thai burgers out with some of the vegetables in pad Thai including bean sprouts and shredded carrots along with plenty of fresh cilantro and I finished them off with some chopped peanuts and crispy fried shallots.

I have to say that these tasty shrimp pad Thai burgers exceeded all of my expectations and that the pad Thai flavours work really well in burger form! I was also really pleased by how well the shrimp patties tuned out! The texture of the large chunks of shrimp was quite amazing and I am looking forward to making many more shrimp burgers in the future!

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Buffalo Chicken Burgers

With the warmer weather here I have been thinking about grilling more and burgers definitely come to mind! When I went over all of my burger recipes I noticed a glaring omission; where were the buffalo chicken burgers? I am a huge fan of all things buffalo chicken and it is always a treat to grill up some buffalo chicken burgers in the summer. I like to start my buffalo chicken burgers off by grinding some boneless and skinless chicken in the food processor to which I add some buffalo chicken flavours including carrots, celery, onions and blue cheese in addition to the buffalo hot sauce. In general I like to avoid fillers like egg and breadcrumbs in burgers which means that the patties are a little more delicate but as long as you flip them gently they still hold together quite well. Once the patties are assembled all that is left is to grill them until cooked and slightly charred before serving them up in a bun with your favourite condiments. For buffalo chicken burgers I like to keep the condiments simple and my faourite topping is a blue cheese slaw whether it be a cabbage slaw or as in this case a broccoli slaw. These tasty buffalo chicken burgers are all set to impress at your barbecues this summer!

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Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper Burgers

With grilling season here I have been thinking about burgers a lot more and this idea for jalapeno popper burgers has been haunting my dreams all winter! The basic idea behind these burgers was to include all of the flavours of jalapeno poppers, which I am totally addicted to, and serve them up in burger form. Jalapeno poppers are jalapenos that are stuffed with cream cheese and/or cheddar that are coated in bread crumbs and fried until crispy and golden brown. Stuffing the burgers with cream cheese seemed like the natural place to start but that left the question about how to incorporate the jalapenos. I was thinking about mixing them right into the cream cheese but raw jalapenos are crispier than I wanted so I decided to roast or grill them first to tenderize them and add a nice smokiness.

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Chicken Satay Burgers

I am back from my short vacation in Vegas and just in time to enjoy some amazing warm weather right here in Toronto! In fact it has been almost warm enough to be full on summer and that means that it is time to get some grilling on! I have had the idea for these chicken satay inspired burgers on my mind for months and now that with the warmer weather it was time to make them! The basic idea behind these burgers is to include all of the flavours of tasty Thai style chicken satay right down to serving them topped with a spicy peanut dipping sauce! In chicken satay the meat is normally marinated in a marinade before being grilled so I started out by seasoning the ground chicken for the burgers with a slight variation of the satay marinade along with an egg to help hold things together. After the chicken has been seasoned it is formed into patties and grilled and these burgers are just that easy to make! I served the burgers topped with one of my favourite guilty pleasures, a spicy peanut sauce along with some Thai inspired slaw to provide a contrast in textures though you could easily go with other options like cucumbers and onions.

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