Recipe Background
A weight loss goal or your desire to just eat a little healthier? Well, this dish gets you one step closer to achieving any and all of those goals! The Healthy Burger offers up a vegetable burger that could in fact stand up to its beef counterpart. Savory grilled eggplant, lemon-dressing-covered cucumber ribbons, and grilled red peppers come together to balance sweetness, tang, freshness, and aromatic goodness in each bite! With a feta smear on toasted buns, Healthy Burger really does pull out all the stops, so your body (and your taste buds) can feel happy!
A weight loss goal or your desire to just eat a little healthier? Well, this dish gets you one step closer to achieving any and all of those goals! The Healthy Burger offers up a vegetable burger that could in fact stand up to its beef counterpart. Savory grilled eggplant, lemon-dressing-covered cucumber ribbons, and grilled red peppers come together to balance sweetness, tang, freshness, and aromatic goodness in each bite! With a feta smear on toasted buns, Healthy Burger really does pull out all the stops, so your body (and your taste buds) can feel happy!
Ingredients
- 6 ounces feta cheese
- 1/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
- kosher salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground sumac
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1/2 large English cucumber
- canola oil to taste, for greasing the grill grates
- 1 medium eggplant sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
- 1 large red pepper halved and seeded
- 4 hamburger buns split
Directions
- In a food processor, add the feta and the yogurt and cover the food processor.
- Purée the feta mixture until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Season the feta mixture with the salt and the black pepper. Set the feta mixture aside
- In a bowl, add the lemon zest, the lemon juice, the sumac, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and whisk to combine.
- Season the lemon dressing with the salt and the black pepper.
- Using a vegetable peeler, shave the cucumber into ribbons.
- Add the cucumber ribbons to the lemon dressing and toss to combine. Set the dressed cucumber ribbons aside.
- Preheat the grill to medium-high heat, setting it up for direct cooking.
- Clean the grill grates and use the canola oil to lightly grease the grill grates.
- Brush the eggplant rounds with the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
- Season the eggplant rounds with the salt and the black pepper.
- Add the eggplant rounds to the hot grill and cook, while turning them occasionally, until they are tender, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add the red pepper halves to the hot grill and cook, while turning often, until charred, about 5-6 minutes.
- Transfer the red pepper halves to a cutting board and cut them into wide strips.
- Add the buns, cut-side down, to the hot grill and toast them, about 1 minute.
- Spread the feta mixture evenly over the toasted sides of the buns.
- Top the buns evenly with the grilled red peppers, the grilled eggplant rounds, and the dressed cucumber ribbons.
- Close the sandwiches and serve.
×