Sausage and Pepper Burgers

I have a great recipe for sausage and peppers, but it’s really heavy. So to lighten it up, I made burgers that taste like sausage and peppers.

Now, most people would start this process with ground meat. This is a mistake. Start with an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Using a hand held grater or zester, grate them into your burger mixing bowl, 2-3 cloves of garlic and a few tablespoons worth of onion. Okay, I suppose you could put the meat in the bowl first and grate these in on top. But for me, meat is the last thing to arrive at this party.

It’s important to hold your grater directly over the bowl so all those yummy oniony juices end up in your burger and not on your cutting board. Now, do the same with a bell pepper (take the seeds out first). This photo was taken before my genius epiphany about the pepper, but you get the point.

 

Then we’re going to add some spice to make this burger taste like a sausage, but with way less fat. Toss in some oregano, chili powder, paprika, dried sage and ground fennel. It’s up to you how much of each depending on your tastes, but I use 2-3 tsps of each. And kosher salt and ground black pepper of course. Now, I can never find ground fennel so…

Now to make the burger nice and airy, add in some panko. Or not. It’s really up to you. And add in your meat. I use ground beef with a relatively low fat content. And mix it up. With your hands. You know that’s the best way to combine everything properly. Make sure everything is distributed evenly throughout your meat, but try not to over work it.

Now form some patties, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a little kosher salt and grill them up!

Think we’re done? Oh no no, we still need to top these babies. Slice the rest of the onion you grated, and possibly one more, depending on how much you want on your burger and how many burgers you’re making. Do the same with bell pepper (your choice of color). Or if you’re feeling crazy, you can use an anaheim chile or cubanelle pepper. Saute until they are done to your liking. Top your burger with them, followed by a slice of cheese. Provolone, mozerella, whatever you have.

And no, there are no pictures of the later steps in the game. Because I was hungry and they were delicious.