However, as I have seen before with her recipes, the flavor profiles are a little off for my taste. [Please don't hate me Juli.. I love all of your ideas and you make me laugh all the time with your posts.. It's just the seasoning is a bit much for me!]
.. I just used her name like she's my friend. Or that she would ever even see this blog. I think we could be awesome friends, that's just likely never going to happen. Oh well. Dream big! Hi Juli!!
Anyway, back to it. Both parts of this recipe have the elements of delicious, but they are off the mark just a bit.
I am going to start with each element and then explain why I changed it. As always, you can find the original recipe at the link above if you'd rather test the waters yourself.
Original Ingredients
- --1# Ground Turkey
- --1/4 red onion minced
- --1/4 red onion thinly sliced
- I didn't really understand this and now I know why. This would be better diced. Bigger pieces to stand out within the meat and the minced bits to mix and hold the meat together. The thinly sliced pieces just made the burger fall apart. My turkey was very lean, so "sticking together" was not it's strong suit.
- --1/2 Poblano pepper, diced
- --1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- I used 1 whole Poblano because that is what I had. That being said, you run into a very similar problem as above with the peppers being diced. The burger has a tendency to fall apart. I would puree this all in a food processor beforehand and then mix with the meat.
- --1 tsp ground cumin
- --1/2 tsp ground red pepper
- --Salt and pepper to taste
- Coat generously with both. Okay, if you're watching your salt then go easy until it's cooked and you can decide what you want but I'm warning you that it needs it.
- --1 TBSP fat [your choice]
- I did not know what this was.. She mentions putting it in the pan to cook but I actually think if you are using ground turkey breast, mix this TBSP in with the meat as opposed to putting it in the pan and you've got yourself some serious delicious going on. I put olive oil over mine, but would use bacon fat next time.
I also added 1 clove of garlic to the turkey because.. well garlic makes just about everything better!
Slaw:
- --1 small cabbage, or a bag of coleslaw
- Okay big pet peeve of mine with recipes. How big is a small cabbage? Or one butternut squash? Or 1 sweet potato? Seriously, give me a weight or some kind of dimension to go by. I chose a regular cabbage because, honestly, they were all the same size, and I ended up with a lot more than prescribed. Of course, a bag would have been easier but a head of cabbage is much cheaper and any excuse I have to use my mandolin slicer [it's got a julienne attachment!] is good for me. Turns out, a head of cabbage is too much, just use the bag.
- --2 avocados
- --1TBSP olive oil
- --1 tsp lime juice
- --1/2 tsp lemon juice
- --1 tsp ground cumin
- I would take this down to 1/2 tsp. There is already cumin in the burgers.. I still would add it but a whole tsp is a bit overkill on the cumin.
- --1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- --salt and pepper to taste
- Again with the 'to taste' stuff. It needs both of these things. Unless you do the following:
- After I got to work and was making this for lunch.. I decided the avocado slaw really needed something to put a bit of tang into it. I added a little bit of Balsamic Vinegar to it and it was fantastic. 1-2TBSP should be good for the whole thing, and I think Apple Cider vinegar would be just as good. Go slow on adding it. Add some, taste, add some more. You might want more than I did. It just needs something to brighten up the avocado as well as mask a bit of the cabbage bitterness.
*phew*
I think this is the most critical I have been of a recipe, but like I said, the idea and everything behind it is good. Coming from a non-Paleo cooking background, though, leads me to a "less is more" in the seasonings department. Complement items where you can, and don't hide the natural taste of things behind overwhelming other flavors.
So here it is. The finished product, as written by me!
Southwest Turkey Sliders with Spicy Avocado Slaw
Prep Time: 10min Cook Time: 10min (ish)
Ingredients:
Sliders:
- 1# ground turkey
- 1/2 red onion, chopped into smaller pieces
- 1 poblano pepper (or green bell if you prefer), chopped into smaller pieces
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 TBSP fat (your choice, I would use olive oil or bacon fat)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (may sub chipotle or cajun seasoning if you want)
- salt and pepper to taste
Slaw:
- 1 bag of coleslaw
- 2 avocados
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1 TBSP vinegar of your choice (I used Balsamic, Apple Cider would also be good)
- Start here. May want to add more AFTER you've mixed it all up
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
Instructions:
Sliders:
- Take all ingredients except the turkey and throw them into your food processor.
- Leave out some onion and dice it if you want piece of onion in your burger. Otherwise throw it all in.
- Pulse until everything it broken down. Don't liquefy it. Basically make it minced like your garlic.
- Toss with meat.
- Cover with salt and pepper if you haven't already
- Make into patties[small or big, your choice. I made one patty per meal as opposed to actual "sliders"], and cook in a frying pan with some fat until white around edges. Flip and finish cooking.
Slaw:
- Everything except coleslaw into the food processor! Don't you love when it's really no effort to do these things?
- Mix with slaw. Taste it. Add more vinegar/salt/pepper if it needs it. Up to you.
Top some slaw with a patty and enjoy! I will warn you that this makes 4 servings, so unless you are feeding a family, you will end up with leftovers. This means your avocado WILL turn brownish. that's okay. You can still eat it like that it's just not as appealing to look at haha
Enjoy! Let me know how it goes!
--L
