Happy day before Thanksgiving to everyone in the States! I’m so excited about all of the cooking and baking in the next 48 hours! I love cranking up the Christmas music when everyone is in the kitchen doing various jobs on Thanksgiving day.
Of course, I’m starting to get a little overwhelmed, like I do every year, at the amount of food we have right now. We should be eating well for at least a week. Yay for leftovers!
I don’t know about you but I have a lot to be thankful for this year. My family has had a pretty crazy and life changing year and God has blessed us so much and gotten us through some wild parts of our recent adventures. So many stories there, but those are for another time. Let’s talk burgers.
I know that fresh basil pesto and burgers are not the first thing you would expect this time of year but it’s getting so summery here. Hey, at least there’s turkey involved here.
I was going for a lighter burger and I thought I’d throw some veggies in there too. You guys have to trust me on this, you can’t taste zucchini at all.
I even got my veggie-hating brother to eat this and he had no clue that it was nutritious. Sophie ate almost an entire burger and that is saying something. I guess she is like every other 6-year-old out there because she always leaves a lot of food on her plate.
Most people associate turkey with being dry and bland but not these. Uh uh, these are so juicy and full of flavor. Top them with that pesto and avocado, you can’t forget about the avocado, and you’ve got an amazing combo.
You can add cheese too, if you want. My family has so many different taste preferences so we pretty much had every variation going on and they were all good.
We always make big batches of everything to feed everyone in the gang so I made a lot of burgers. I got through about 6 on the skillet before I realized it was going to take forever to finish so I decided to try them in the oven to save time and sanity and I was really happy with the result. Just be sure to line your pan very well if you choose to bake them or the juices will burn on your pan and that’s no fun to scrub.
This is definitely something that I will be making again and I hope you try them too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup pine nuts (you can sub walnuts)
- 1 1/3 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 cups olive oil
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 medium)
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 egg white
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 1 teaspoon oregeno
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 hamburger buns (try these or the ones from this recipe
- tomato slices
- fresh lettuce leaves
- avocado slices
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for pesto in blender or food processor and pulse until roughly smooth.
- This can be made ahead of time and stored in refrigerator until ready to use.
- Combine breadcrumbs, garlic, and seasoning in a large bowl. Add zucchini, onion, egg white, and turkey and mix until well combined.
- Heat a medium skillet over low heat and pour in olive oil. Form turkey mixture into 6 patties and place a few on skillet. Cook on each side for 5 - 7 minutes until fully cooked. (These take longer than your average burger because of all of the moisture in the zucchini so try to be patient.) Remove to a paper towel lined plate to absorb excess moisture.
- Slice buns in half, toast, and spread with pesto. Place burgers on buns and layer with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and any other desired toppings.
Notes
You can also bake these burgers. Place on foil lined baking tray(well lined) and bake at 350 degrees F (180 C) for 20 - 30 minutes turning halfway through until fully cooked.
Those look good – and anything with pesto has to be even better, right?
So right!
We have an outrageous amount of food right now too! So many leftovers! Although that’s certainly not a bad thing 🙂 These burgers look wonderful!
Definitely not a bad thing. Thank you so much, Ashley!
I can’t believe I’m saying this (being the die hard red meat eater), but these look sooo delicious. Thanks for the idea Tori!
Your welcome!