🥔 Turkey Burgers w/ Turkey Bacon & Avocado - or Veggie Burgers
🥔 Turkey Burgers w/ Turkey Bacon & Avocado - or Veggie Burgers
This 4th of July burger includes not 1, not 2, but 3 One Potato special sauces! Elevate your burger game with homemade ketchup, special sauce, and dipping sauce.
Here comes a summer crowd-pleasing meal – One Potato’s Turkey Bacon Avocado Turkey Burgers (a tasty mouthful!) or substitute with our carrot-veggie burgers. We marry fresh ground organic turkey with turkey bacon and all the fixins’ for this mouthwatering, supremely satisfying summer dinner. One Potato Homemade Ketchup and Special Sauce raise the deliciousness factor even more, giving these burgers incredible added flavor. Throw in some healthy baked or grilled sweet potato fries on the side, and you’re all set for a memorable dinner.
Summer love for One Potato Special Sauces: This 4th of July burger includes not 1, not 2, but 3 One Potato sauces. We make our burgers with basic kitchen ingredients but you may opt to save time by buying store-made versions. Either way - by adding homemade sauces, you'll elevate this juicy summer meal. Making batches of these sauces to keep in your fridge will enable you to jazz up this dish and others throughout the week and, if you are headed out for a party - you can take some as a fabulous gift for your hosts. These small glass bottles even come with a funnel for easy filling, and by sharing your sauces you’ll be spreading One Potato special sauce love even further.
You can cook these turkey burgers in a pan, or prepare them on the grill if you’re grilling outdoors this summer.
No time?
Pre-make the homemade sauces in this recipe. The One Potato Special Sauce and One Potato Ketchup will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, and the One Potato Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce should be eaten within a week.
No time to make homemade sauces? Pick up a bottle of your favorite ketchup, special sauce, and blue cheese dressing.
Use fresh or frozen already formed turkey burger patties. If you are vegetarian, you can also easily make this meal using Beyond Meat patties or your favorite veggie burger.
Buy frozen sweet potato fries. We’re a big fan of the Alexia Sweet Potato Fries that you can find at your local grocery store or online.
Use your air fryer to cook your sweet potato fries.
If you don’t feel like putting your veggies on your burger, why not make a side salad with the lettuce, tomato and avocado, and top it with the blue cheese sauce? We provide tips to thin it out and make it a pourable salad dressing.
One Potato recommends reading through the full recipe before starting to cook - that way all the steps will go more smoothly. Also, wash and dry any produce before beginning to cook.
Turkey Burgers w/ Turkey Bacon & Avocado - or Veggie Burgers
For 4 Servings
One Potato Kitchen Tools: large bowl, 2 baking sheets, large skillet or grill pan, chef’s knife, cutting board, parchment paper (optional), plastic wrap, food processor, over the sink strainer
From Your Pantry: salt (kosher or sea), pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, egg, oil (olive, avocado, canola, or grapeseed)
Ingredients:
Turkey burger ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon avocado or grapeseed oil
Veggie burger ingredients:
1/2 cup bulgur wheat (cooked, cooled)
1 cup water
15 ounce can pinto beans (rinsed and drained)
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb Sweet potato fries (approx 4 sweet potatoes)
12 oz Turkey bacon or veggie bacon
4 Burger buns
4-8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese (optional)
1 avocado (sliced)
Vine ripe tomatoes
Iceberg lettuce
Butter pickles
Here are some recommendations for store-bought favorite ketchup, special sauce, and blue cheese dressing.
Directions:
Prepare & Cook the Sweet Potato Fries:
Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 450˚F.
Prep Potatoes: Scrub, peel, and slice your sweet potatoes into ¼” thick slices. Place fries in a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and season lightly with salt. Toss to coat.
Bake: Arrange fries in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake the potatoes until golden brown and crisp, about 20 minutes, tossing halfway in. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with salt to taste.
Alternatively, cook your sweet potato fries on the grill: Parboil whole sweet potatoes for 10-15 minutes, peel (optional!), and then slice into wedges when cool enough to handle (½” thick, you want these slightly thicker than the fries you bake in the oven). Same as step 2 above, place fries in a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and season lightly with salt. Toss to coat.
Grill the fries: Over an open grill, medium-heat (or 400° on a gas grill), lightly oil and preheat your grill basket or flat grill topper. Arrange the sweet potato fries in a single layer, and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, rotating when grill marks appear. Remove from the grill, sprinkle with salt to taste, and let rest for 5-10 minutes for crispy sweet potato fries.
Prepare & Cook the Turkey or Vegetarian Bacon:
Prep the Bacon: Lay out the turkey bacon on a second baking sheet lined with parchment paper (the parchment is optional, it just helps with clean-up. You can also use foil).
Bake: Place the bacon in the oven where the sweet potato fries are already cooking. Cook the bacon for 12–15 minutes, depending on your preferred doneness (most store-bought turkey bacon is already fully cooked, so no need to worry about undercooking it).
Use that grill: Lightly oil your grill grates or flat grill topper, and lay turkey bacon or vegetarian bacon strips flat. Cook for approximately 3 minutes, flip, and cook for another 3 minutes. Note: cooking time will vary depending on how crispy you would like your bacon.
Prepare & Cook Turkey Burger Patties:
Prepare the ground turkey: Grind the oats in a food processor or blender until finely ground. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oats, turkey, egg, garlic powder, onion powder and salt until thoroughly combined. Pro Tip: To avoid overmixing and having tough turkey burgers, mix the ingredients together until it just barely sticks to your hands.
Form the burgers: Dampen hands with water (to prevent sticking) and, working on plastic wrap or parchment (it makes cleanup easy), press the ground turkey into 1” thick patties, slightly wider than buns. Place patties separately on a plate.
Cook the burgers: Heat a lightly oiled, large non-stick sauté pan or grill pan over medium heat. When pan is hot, add burgers and cook for approximately 4-6 minutes on each side until cooked through (if using a meat thermometer, it should read 170 ̊F when inserted in the center). If you want cheese, add a slice on top of the burger right before it’s done, and cover for a final minute of cooking.
Grill Turkey Burgers: Heat your grill to medium-high heat (around 450°) and allow the grill grates to heat to cooking temperature. Since ground turkey has a lower fat content, the burgers will cook more easily if you oil your grill grates before cooking. Use tongs and a generously oiled paper towel (you can apply oil to the paper towel by using an avocado oil cooking spray bottle, for example) to lightly oil the grill grates with avocado or grapeseed oil. Place the burgers on the grill and cook for approximately 6-7 minutes one each side until cooked through (if using a meat thermometer, it should read 170 ̊F when inserted in the center). If you want cheese, add a slice on top of the burger 2 minutes before it’s done.
Pro tip for grilling: Chill the formed turkey burger patties in the freezer for 20 minutes before grilling. They’ll hold their shape and be much easier to handle on the grill after chilling.
Vegetarian Option:
Prepare the veggie burger mix: Place the bulgar wheat and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for 13 minutes. Remove from stovetop, place in a bowl and let cool. Place the pinto beans in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the cooked bulgur, cheese, carrot, salt, garlic and onion powder to the beans in the food processor and pulse to combine. Pro Tip: When you process the beans and other ingredients, do not overblend. The mixture should be combined but still have some texture to it.
Form & Cook the Burgers: Divide the mixture into 4 equal patties. Heat oil in a large sauté pan or grill pan over medium heat and cook the burgers for 3-4 minutes on each side.
Pro Tip: For firmer patties, chill them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before cooking.
Assemble the Burgers:
Open a burger bun and place a spoonful of One Potato Homemade Ketchup on one half, followed by ½ spoon of One Potato Special Sauce. Place a leaf or two of lettuce on top of the ketchup/sauce, followed by a slice of tomato and some pickles. Add the burger, then top with avocado and turkey bacon. Of course, feel free to assemble each burger to your liking.
Serve the burgers with the fries and ketchup, and the iceberg lettuce with blue cheese sauce for dipping. Enjoy!
Substitutions and Dietary Considerations
Dairy free: Omit the cheese, or use vegan cheese (for topping your burgers and for the veggie burger mix). Make sure you make the One Potato Sauces with dairy-free substitutions.
Gluten-free: Use your favorite GF buns. In the turkey burgers, rolled oats are GF, but you can also prepare the turkey burgers with GF panko instead of oats. Prepare the Veggie Burgers with the GF substitute of quinoa instead of bulgur wheat.
Vegetarian: You can prepare our Veggie Burgers, enjoy a Beyond Meat patty, or your fave store-bought veggie burger brand. Use vegetarian bacon.
Ultimate Time-Saving Hacks:
Make-ahead burgers: You can mix together and form the turkey burger patties up to 3 days in advance, or you can even freeze them for later use. Place on a plate or small baking sheet, and place dividers (if needed) of wax paper between the patties to prevent them from sticking together. Wrap in plastic wrap and store.
The Veggie Burger patties can also be made ahead, and stored for up to 24 hours in the fridge. To store for longer, prep the patties and freeze them for up to 2 weeks.
Buy Pre-Made Ketchup and other dipping sauces, or prepare a large batch ahead.
Cook the sweet potato fries in your air fryer.
Substitute Side: Buy frozen sweet potato fries and prepare according to the instructions on the bag instead of spending time slicing sweet potatoes.
Getting Kids Involved
Let kids sprinkle the sweet potatoes with the seasoning and toss with their hands, mash the avocados (instead of using slices). Older kids can slice the avocados and tomatoes.
With all these sauces, taste-testing is fun. Let your kids rank their favorites and then create combinations, describing the flavors and how they change.
This is a perfect assembly line meal. When the burgers are done, make a DIY bar with all the toppings and let kids put their burgers together just the way they like it.
Pro Tips
Picky Eaters?
If your kids are a little intimidated by blue cheese, have them taste some of the mild blue cheese crumbles before mixing together the Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce. You can also spread the dipping sauce on a stick of celery (which has a high water content) to dilute the flavor a little bit.
Don’t overmix your turkey burgers or your veggie burgers: Your turkey burgers should be mixed until slightly sticky, and you want the veggie burger ingredients to be well-combined, but to still have some texture.
Save time making your veggie burgers: You can save a step by using the grating blade for the cheese and carrots - grating directly into the pulsed pinto beans and then mixing together with the rest of the ingredients.
Flavor Your Fries: If you like a more flavorful sweet potato fry, toss with a touch of garlic salt for a more robust yet still kid-friendly flavor. You can also use our quick One Potato Steak Seasoning Rub (from the DIY Steak Salad Recipe LINK) for a more complex flavor - this is why we recommend making a batch and keeping it on hand, to add flavor to all kinds of dishes. Save your homemade spice mixes in these shake top spice jars.
Keep your Avocado fresh: If you’re not going to be serving your meal immediately, squeeze a bit of lemon or lime juice on the avocado flesh to make sure it doesn’t brown.
BONUS!
Personalize your sauce flavors and flavor profiles. From our DIY Steak Salad Sandwich, we gave you quick tips to make One Potato Aioli and One Potato Horseradish Dipping Sauce. These also go great on turkey/veggie burgers if you want a different flavor profile, and can be kept in your fridge for up to 1 week. These are the measurements we recommend to make approximately ½ cup, but you can flavor to taste as you combine. Naturally GF, you can easily substitute vegan mayo and vegan sour cream in the below ingredients to make this vegan and dairy-free.
Flavored aioli: Stir or whisk together your favorite store-bought mayonnaise (½ cup) with ¼ cup minced garlic, 1 tsp paprika, and 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional or to taste).
Horseradish dipping sauce: Stir or whisk together equal parts creamed horseradish, mayonnaise, and sour cream
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