goats cheese stuffed turkey burgers with honey mustard dressing

I am a supermarket cashiers worst nightmare. The lady with a trolley load of bulk-bin bags and fresh grocery items, all requiring the punching in of a ‘bin code’ or a produce name.

When we do the weekly shop, Jesse and I purposely avoid the self checkouts for this reason. Foolishly we sometimes succumb to the temptation of the shorter aisles at these checkouts but without exception we spend far longer impatiently keying in the (often incorrect) code and trying to decipher between organic yams, non organic yams or sweet potato (what’s the difference!?) than if we just relied on the old school, experienced, man-labour; the cashier.

goats cheese stuffed turkey burger with portobello

Back in New Zealand I was told once that supermarket cashiers are on timers. I thought this was pretty radical, that staff have to scan a certain number of products per minute. What if it’s a quiet day? Does the cashier lose wages if they don’t reach their target? Should cashiers be promoting their aisle in order to hit more scans per minute?

But now I get how valuable that was.

Clearly Canadian cashiers are not on timers. Priority is not on getting you through the checkout asap. It’s to hover in the checkout, fingering the stacks of candy bars and junky magazines, eyeing up what others bought that you should have, remembering items you have forgotten and dashing back down the aisles, ie: spending more money in store. It’s infuriating to have the cashier pick up your bag of brown rice and ask what it tastes like. Or inspect each one of your dozen eggs, as if you haven’t already done so. Hey why not check the expiry date on my yogurt? And pour yourself a glass of almond milk while you’re at it.

When I am in need of a dash-in-dash-out shopping experience I strictly avoid Superstore and head to Calgary Co Op instead. Although their cashiers too like to amble through their scanning, it is always a far more satisfying shopping experience. A great range of locally raised chicken, antibiotic free steaks and bulk containers of natural yogurt. With a pound of ground turkey from the packhouse a few streets back from my home, a roll of fresh goats cheese, freshly baked local Ace Bakery buns, local Portobellos and homemade caramelised onions it was turkey burgers on the menu for us.

turkey burger with portobello and honey mustard dressing

Goat’s Cheese stuffed Turkey Burgers with Honey Mustard Dressing
Makes 5 or 6 burgers

500g ground turkey breast (or dark meat)
bunch fresh herbs (I mixed cilantro and rosemary)
2 tsp whole grain mustard
chopped spring onion

6 slices of goats cheese (Chèvre)

6 portobello mushrooms, dirt wiped off with dry paper towel
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
20g butter, chopped into cubes

fresh buns
caramelised onions
alfalfa sprouts
roasted kale to accompany

Preheat oven to 350˚F with baking tray in centre of oven ready for the patties and the mushrooms.

Rip up kale leaves and place in a lightly sprayed roasting dish. Season generously and place in oven for 20 minutes until golden and crisp.

Thoroughly mix together turkey, herbs, mustard and spring onion. Divide into 5 or 6 (depending on preference for burger size) and shape into disks. Press a slice of goats cheese into the centre of each disk and fold over the edges to enclose the cheese.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over high heat. Grill patties on each side until golden. Transfer to hot baking tray in oven to cook through. Meanwhile, scatter chopped garlic over gills of the upward facing mushroom. Dollop over the butter and add to baking tray with turkey patties. Cook for 10 minutes until turkey is cooked through and cheese is melted. Mushrooms should be dark and start to release their liquids. Remove from the oven.

Prepare fillings, ie, lightly toast ciabatta buns and spread with avocado. Top with caramelised onion, mushroom, turkey patty and alfalfa sprouts. Drizzle over honey mustard dressing and serve with kale chips.

Honey Mustard Dressing

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon clover honey
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
squeeze lemon juice
1 tablespoon natural yogurt
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Mix together and refrigerate until ready to use.

5 thoughts

  1. Pingback: For Love Lemons Craft Dress In Dark

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>