Moroccan Spiced Lamb Burgers with Spiralised Cucumber Salad & Tzatziki

After a few days having eaten mainly fish – Dan was asking for something a bit meatier.  I thought lamb burgers were slightly more summery than beef burgers and I could freshen them up with the tzatziki to make them less heavy so I went about creating a recipe for them.

This made 5 large-ish burgers and enough tzatziki to top them all.

To make the burgers I diced the onion, chopping the parsley and then adding all the ingredients to a large bowl and seasoning with some salt and pepper.  In my attempt to get Dan involved in the cooking more, I made him do the messy bit, mixing the burger ingredients by hand and shaping them into patties ready for grilling (he makes a mean beef burger from scratch for BBQs in the summer) – the one meal he will willingly cook – so it wasn’t too much of a stretch for him.

While he was doing this, I made the tzatziki by crushing the garlic clove, chopping the mint, juicing and zesting the lime and mixing everything together with the yoghurt and some salt and pepper for seasoning.

Keeping mine the light version, I served it on top of a salad.  I spiralised a cucumber (basically I just wanted to try out the ribbon attachment on my spiraliser which I hadn’t used yet, but chopped cucumber would work just as well, or you could make cucumber ribbons with a potato peeler)  I use this Spiralizer and have found it to be the best value for money.  I added the halved cherry tomatoes, black olives and thinly sliced the radishes.  I topped it with the slices, half an avocado and the halloumi that I fried in a bit of butter for a couple of minutes on each side (gotta love that squeaky cheese!)  I toasted some pine nuts in a frying pan for a couple of minutes until golden brown and then I was ready to put everything together.

I topped the salad with the lamb burger, a few caramelised onions (which I’d just sliced and cooked off in some butter), a dollop of the tzatziki and sprinkled the toasted pine nuts over everything.  Then I drizzled lemon juice and olive oil over the top, seasoned it with salt and pepper and was ready to go.

Dan had his (2 burgers!!) served in some brioche buns and I’d made a Harissa mayonnaise to spread on them (I just stirred 1tsp of Harissa paste with 2 tbsp of shop bought mayonnaise).  I then piled in the lamb burger, halloumi, tzatziki, caramelised onions and then he added (ruined it with) some ketchup.  That boy puts ketchup and mayonnaise on everything and ruins my greatest creations – his brother even accused him the other day of having mayonnaise running through his arteries!  He had the salad on the side along with some potato wedges that I’d made.

Feeling rather decadent we drank a glass of Cava each which we had left over in the fridge from the weekend which was going to lose its fizz if we didn’t drink it soon (any excuse!)

If you prefer a beefier burger you should try my melting middle Mozarella Caprese Burgers or for a bit of a kick, Dan’s Super Simple Spicy Burgers.