Now that summer is officially here, it’s time to pull out the grill and whip up some nostalgic summery foods!
I’m looking forward to dinners on the patio and barbecues with friends and family this year, and I also want to make sure that I’m still eating clean.
For me that means loading up on fresh fruits and veggies and skipping the burger bun, but make sure you don’t skip this recipe just because it’s bunless!
You could easily add a whole wheat bun and some Trader Joe’s Organic Baked Beans (no scary ingredients, lower in sugar!) and feel like you were totally splurging :)
I think the key to a good burger is first the meat and then the seasoning.
Be sure not to use beef thats’ too lean or you’ll end up with a dry burger. A good ground chuck or ground round will make a really tasty burger. Aldi sells organic grass-fed ground beef for a great price!
After you’ve got some good beef (or turkey if you avoid red meat) you’ll need to season it up. The spice mix in the recipe below is FANTASTIC and makes about 2 tablespoons. You could even make more to keep on hand! That would make this meal even quicker next time.
The sweet potato fries come together really fast and because they’re homemade they don’t contain all the extra ingredients you usually find in the frozen variety. I checked out a bag of frozen sweet potato fries at Trader Joe’s the other day and the second ingredient was wheat, which kind of surprised me.
There are a few (dark, shadowy) pictures of the sweet potato preparation below the recipe, so be sure to check those out for tips on how to slice and dice your taters!
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- lettuce, tomato, onion and whatever other "fixins" you like
- ketchup and mustard
- FOR THE SPICE MIXTURE
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1½ tsp black pepper
- 1¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp brown sugar
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp (or less!) ground cayenne pepper
- Turn your oven to broil and make sure the top rack is on the highest level.
- Mix all spices together and add to ground beef.
- Gently knead the ground beef with the spice mix until it's just incorporated. Not too much or you'll toughen up your meat!
- Form meat into 4 patties and set aside.
- Peel both sweet potatoes and chop off the rough points on either end.
- Cut each potato lengthwise again and again until you get strips of similar thickness (see photos below)
- Toss fries with olive oil and a few dashes of salt, then spread them out into a single layer on a cookie sheet covered with foil or parchment paper.
- Broil fries for 4-5 minutes, then flip over and broil for another 3-4 minutes.
- While the fries are cooking, grill burger patties until cooked to your preferred temperature (medium, medium-rare, well-done, etc). You can also broil the patties if you don't have a grill! About 5 minutes on either side would probably cook the burgers to medium.
