Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there!  I imagine many families will be out by  the grille this weekend, so here’s a little recipe that can be cooked on the grille, but is not the usual beef burgers.

Turkeys are available all year long, but for some reason I only roast one and prepare a turkey dinner at Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas.  However, at our house, we really like turkey and all the fixings, so when I found this recipe for turkey burgers that include elements of a full turkey dinner I was hooked.

Especially at this time of year when cooking beef burgers on the grill is so popular, I  suggest you try turkey burgers instead.  They are moist and tasty; reminiscent of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.  Not exactly lo-cal, they certainly are more nutritionally dense than a plain ole beef burger on a white bun with catsup.

 TURKEY BURGERS WITH THE WORKS

SERVES  4

. Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 McIntosh apple–peeled,cored, quartered, and finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 smallish ribs celery, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/4 cup stuffing mix, crushed into crumbs
• salt and pepper
• 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 4 whole-grain rolls, or sandwich-size English muffins
• 8 leaves lettuce

1. In a non-stick skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat.  Add the apple, onion and celery; season with the poultry seasoning , and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring occasionally  until the onion is tender, 5-6 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl to cool a little.  Wipe the skillet clean and return to the stove.
2. Add the turkey and parsley to the apple mixture. season with more salt and pepper as desired, and combine with a fork;  divide into fourths and form into 4 patties.  Poke each patty with your finger to make a depression in the center.  This keeps them flat as they cook, and not puff up in the center.

3.  In the skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Cook the patties for about 6 minutes on each side, lowering the heat the last 3 minutes so they don’t get over-browned.

4.  While the burgers cook, open the cranberry  sauce, and slice into rounds;  lightly toast rolls or English muffins and spread with remaining tablespoon butter.

5.  To serve, place burgers on buttered roll bottoms, top with lettuce,  cranberry sauce and buttered tops.

These burgers may also be cooked on a grill, but use a fine grate so pieces of the burgers do not fall into the fire.

SOURCE:  Adapted from a recipe by Rachael Ray