Yesterday I spent the afternoon wondering what I was going to cook for dinner. I knew it had to be something made with ground turkey because I had purchased some the day before in the mark down for quick sale area of the meat department.
How many of you like to get the 30% or 50% off reduced for quick sale items? I have had good luck and only once got something that was bad and had to return it to the store.
I was looking at this big package of ground turkey. I kept running through my head the same old boring stuff usually done with ground meat. I wanted something different something unique.
I decided on sliders. Two different kinds of sliders with a fresh cucumber salad to make the dish less heavy.
These are super easy but different than the normal put a meat patty between mini buns a slider.
The first one is an Italian inspired slider using button mushrooms as the bread. This one is low carb and paleo friendly.
The second one is Mediterranean flavors. Using oven baked eggplant rounds as the bread. It is covered in Italian bread crumbs so it does not count as low carb.
Mushroom Sliders
1 lb ground turkey or beef
2 packages mushroom gravy mix
Italian seasoning
Black pepper
Salt
Garlic powder
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Button Mushrooms
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup red wine
Red pepper flakes
Shaved Parmesan
Clean and remove stems form button mushroom. Marinated in olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic power and Italian seasoning while prepping other items.
Thoroughly mix ground meat with mushroom gravy mix, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Set aside in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Reduce tomato sauce, red wine, a pinch of red pepper flakes, a dash of Italian seasoning and a dash of garlic powder until fairly thick. Be careful not to burn it.
This will work best if you have a raised rack insert for your baking sheet as the mushrooms won’t get as soggy.
Place mushrooms with side with stem hole facing up. Put in rows of two on sheet as one side with be the top of the slider and one the bottom.
In the bottom mushroom put a table spoon of reduced sauce.
Roll turkey mixture into walnut sized balls then flatten. Place on top of mushroom with sauce mixture pressing gently.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven.
Top the meat with some cheese. Put a bit of your remaining sauce into tops of mushroom caps. Flip them on top of mushrooms with the meat mixture and secure with toothpick.
Return to oven for 15-20 minutes.
let rest a few minutes then enjoy.
Eggplant Turkey Sliders
1 sweet onion
1 small eggplant
Package premade hummus
Italian bread crumbs
Olive oil
4 eggs
1 lb ground turkey
2 packages onion gravy mix
Safeway Mediterranean seasoning powder
salt
Feta cheese
Heirloom tomato
cumin seed
Crushed red pepper
garlic powder
pepper
Peel eggplant. Cut into 1/4 rounds. Lightly salt and set aside in a strainer to drain for 1 hour.
Mix meat, onion gravy mix, cumin seed, a pinch of red pepper, garlic powder, pepper and Mediterranean seasoning together thoroughly. Set aside for 30 minutes.
Mix eggs with a few tablespoons of olive oil until incorporated.
Pat eggplant slices dry
Put bread crumbs on a plate and have a baking sheet with a rack insert that has been sprayed with a non stick spray like pam ready.
Dip the eggplant slices in egg mixture then into bread crumbs to coat. I like to do this twice and shake them off of loose bread crumbs. You end up with crunchier slices. Place on baking rack.
Make flat turkey patties about the size of your eggplant rounds and put on rack to cook at same time.
Put into 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven flip to brown other side.
Slice sweet onion super thin. I use a mandolin.
Caramelize onions in pan with a little olive oil.
Thinly slice tomato and sprinkle with Mediterranean seasoning.
Assembly:
Put turkey patty on top of one eggplant round. Top with onion, feta cheese and tomato slice. Spread some hummus on the top eggplant round and place on top of other round.
These are crispy. Tasty and fun to eat.
Cucumber salad
Cucumber
Red onion
Seasoned rice vinegar
Olive oil
Pepper
Thinly slice cucumber and half a red onion with mandolin.
Coat with 2 tablespoons olive oil and vinegar. How I measure the vinegar is enough to coat then enough to coat again.
Pepper to taste.
Mix thoroughly.
Set aside and refrigerate. The longer this can sit and marinate the better it tastes.
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