Ground turkey can be kind of, well, boring if you don’t dress it up right. That’s why I made these turkey burgers with a twist and added fun add-ins to the burger patty for maximum flavor and color. And instead of the ketchup and mustard treatment, these juicy burgers get a homemade lemon dill yogurt sauce, crunchy slices of cucumber, and a few slivers of red onion. If you’re looking to change up your burger game, these Mediterranean Turkey Burgers are it!
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Can the Turkey Burgers be Grilled?
Yes, you can definitely grill these burgers instead of cooking them in a skillet. An outdoor grill or even an indoor countertop grill, like a George Foreman grill, will work great.
Why 19 oz. of Ground Turkey?
I’ll never understand why, but some brands sell ground turkey in 19 oz. packages instead of one-pound packages (if you work in that industry and know why, please let me know). If you can only find a one-pound package of ground turkey, you can still make this recipe. I wouldn’t adjust any other ingredients, just make four patties instead of five and they’ll be a little extra flavorful.
What to Serve with Mediterranean Turkey Burgers
Since I had a half cucumber and red onion leftover from the recipe, I used them to make a small batch of my Super Fresh Cucumber Salad. It’s the perfect light side to these burgers. You could also serve them with something like Herby Potato Salad, Mediterranean Coleslaw, Steak Fries, Mediterranean White Bean Salad, Quinoa Tabbouleh, or a simple green salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, and a vinaigrette).
Can I Use Fresh Spinach?
Yes, you can use fresh spinach in this recipe instead of frozen, if you prefer. I suggest chopping the spinach until it’s in small pieces so it’s easier to mix into the meat. You may also want to sauté it briefly in a skillet to get some of the water out. You’ll want about ¼ cup once sautéed.
Mediterranean Turkey Burgers
Servings 5Ingredients
Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt ($0.50)
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.03)
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp dried dill ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.02)
Turkey Burgers
- 19 oz. ground turkey* ($3.89)
- 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes ($0.83)
- 1/4 cup minced red onion ($0.08)
- 2 oz. frozen spinach (1 cup when frozen) ($0.25)
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta ($0.57)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
For Serving
- 5 hamburger buns ($3.04)
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced ($0.75)
Instructions
- Make the lemon dill yogurt sauce first. Stir together the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic powder, dried dill, and salt. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Prepare the add-ins for the turkey burgers. Finely chop the sun dried tomatoes, mince or finely dice the red onion, crumble the feta, and then thaw and squeeze all the moisture out of the frozen spinach (2 oz. will be about 1 cup when frozen, ¼ cup when thawed and squeezed dry).
- Add the ground turkey, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, feta, spinach, dried oregano, garlic powder, and salt to a bowl. Mix the ingredients together until evenly combined.
- Divide and shape the turkey mixture into five burger patties. Make them flatter and wider than usual because they will shrink up and in as they cook.
- Heat ½ Tbsp cooking oil in a skillet over medium. Once hot, add three of the turkey burgers and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining cooking oil and the rest of the burger patties.
- To serve, smear some of the lemon dill yogurt sauce on a bun. Add a turkey burger, some sliced cucumber, and sliced red onion, then enjoy.
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Equipment
- Chef’s Knife
- Color Cutting Boards
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Mediterranean Turkey Burgers – Step By Step Photos
Make the lemon dill yogurt sauce first, so the flavors have a little time to blend. Stir together ½ cup Greek yogurt, ½ Tbsp lemon juice, ⅛ tsp garlic powder, ⅛ tsp dried dill, and ⅛ tsp salt. Refrigerate the sauce until ready to use. And yes, you can use plain non-Greek yogurt if needed, it just makes a less thick sauce. :)
Prepare the burger add-ins. Chop about ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes (I use the dry pack, not the kind packed in oil), mince or finely dice ¼ cup red onion (save the rest to slice and place on the burgers), crumble 1 oz. feta (about ¼ cup), and thaw then squeeze all the moisture out of 2 oz. frozen spinach. The spinach is about 1 cup when frozen, ¼ cup after it has been thawed and squeezed dry.
Place 19 oz. ground turkey, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, feta, spinach, 1 tsp dried oregano, ¼ tsp garlic powder, and ¼ tsp salt in a bowl (sorry, I forgot the oregano, garlic powder, and salt until after the photo was taken).
Mix the ingredients into the ground turkey until it’s all evenly mixed.
Divide and shape the meat mixture into five burger patties. Make the patties thinner and wider than you’d expect because they do shrink up and inward as you cook them.
To cook the burgers in a skillet, add ½ Tbsp cooking oil to a skillet and heat over medium. Once hot, add a few of the burger patties and cook on each side for 5-7 minutes, or until well browned and cooked through. Repeat with the second half of the oil and the remaining burger patties.
To serve, spread some of the lemon dill yogurt sauce on a bun, add a cooked burger patty and a few slices of cucumber and red onion. Enjoy!
I thought this had a lot of potential, but it doesn’t come through. The turkey burgers are VERY sticky, and have to be handled very carefully. Turning them is also requires care. Flavor wise, I put a blob of the dressing on each to add some flavor, still not really enough. I served these without buns, which would have further diluted their flavors, but didn’t really matter. Won’t do this again, there are lots of other recipes to try. Arborist Boulder
Turkey burgers and yogurt sauce were delicious. We added feta when we ate the burgers because my daughter doesn’t like feta cheese. Made the steak fries no a green salad. I knew I would love these when you posted them last week.
This was so good! It will definitely be on repeat! So light and flavorful!
Can you skip the feta or is there a dairy free substitute for feta? These sound great! Thanks
I don’t have a dairy-free sub for that, unfortunately. You can skip it if you prefer, but it will change the flavor of the burger slightly.
Feta is sheep and goat milk based, regular cheese is hard on my wife but she can eat feta!
If you want the saltiness that feta brings without using dairy, try some Kalamata olives. Briny and delicious, and they’re a bona fide Mediterranean food.
These sound delicious! I usually make bacon cheddar turkey burgers that my Dad loves, but I think we need to give these a try, too! If I wanted to add some mushrooms, do you think that would work with the flavors? I was thinking sautée them first to remove most of the moisture, then add them into the burger mix. Would they be better as a topping? Hmm….
While I don’t think mushrooms are 100% match for this flavor profile, I certainly wouldn’t turn them down! Using them as a topping is probably the easiest method. If you put them into the burger you’d want to chop them finely and sauté first, as you suggested. :)
I am loving these older recipes being brought back! Hard to believe this has been going for over a decade now, thank you! Making this one with some halloumi bites, can’t wait.
Thanks for reposting this recipe–I’d forgotten about it for a while, and it’s too delicious not to revisit. I don’t care for ground turkey, but have made this with both ground chicken and lean ground pork (93% lean at my supermarket). When we visited Greece several times in the early 1980s, we ate a lot of pork, which people don’t think of as a Mediterranean meat–souvlaki was always pork unless we specifically requested lamb, which cost more. I don’t think chicken souvlaki was an option at that time, although it probably is now. The marinated pork was sublime.
Since this recipe makes more burgers than the two of us eat at a single meal, I have turned the rest of the mixture into meatballs and baked in the oven for about 15-20 minutes to enjoy later–think meal prep with Greek type salads and orzo sides, or glorious pocket bread sandwiches for those yummy “leftovers.” Since they are so low fat, keep the meatballs small, about 1″ and cook quickly or they will seriously dry out.
The dill sauce is brilliant–I’ve used it on sandwiches, with pork chops, falafels, or grilled chicken. In the spring and summer, I use fresh dill from my garden–about 1 heaping tsp, but the dried dill is more convenient and still tastes terrific. For the yogurt sauce, I would recommend whole milk Greek yogurt–only a few more calories and since you only use a little and the burgers are low fat, the extra flavor is totally worth a few fat calories. To be really decadent, use sour cream–which I have done when I didn’t have plain Greek yogurt. Low or no fat yogurt is wonderful with fruit, breakfast granola, and other sweet things and in baking, but it lacks taste when used for savory dips and sauces. I also use whole milk Greek yogurt for tzatziki.
I love your suggestions, as always, Janet! Thank you so much for always sharing your wonderful insight and expertise. :)
Crazy question, could I use blue cheese instead of feta. That’s all I have in the fridge right now.
If you’re a fan of blue cheese, I say go for it! :) It will change the flavor of the burger, obviously, but physically it should act just the same as the feta.
I’ve made this before when they were called “Greek Turkey Burgers”. It seems that all you did was change the name (as the other recipe disappeared) and the questions above the recipe… Also, how can this be today on the “latest and greatest” section if it has comments from last year??? I don’t get it… did you just recycle the recipe or did you make any changes? If that’s the case, why don’t you explain that in the article? This is disappointing. I’ve actually gotten in touch with you before suggesting new recipes and was ignored. This seems to be unnecessary.
In addition to the new recipes that I make every week I also update about one old recipe per week because after almost twelve years my skills and knowledge have improved and I want my content to reflect that. Sometimes I’m just updating the photographs, sometimes I’m adding information to the blog post, sometimes improving on the recipe itself, sometimes it’s all of those things. It’s the “latest and greatest” because it’s what I’m working on most recently, and yes, I think it’s pretty great. We have over three million different people visiting the website every month, so while you may have seen this before not everyone has. I’m sorry this upsets you, but improving the quality of my work is important to me and I will always continue to improve and update old work. We always keep copies of the original recipes in case anyone wants it, so you can reach out to us at any time at support@budgetbytes.com and we can send you the old version if you prefer.
So what changed from the previous version?
I just skipped the egg and breadcrumbs, as I had suggested in the original blog post, because they are not necessary.
For the record, I love seeing some of the old recipes updated! Even when they don’t change, it is a good reminder of some of your amazing recipes that end up buried at the bottom of a Pinterest board!
you are being rather aggressive and rude if you ask me Marie. What’s your problem ?
These burgers are so delicious…easy to make and healthy…bun no bun with some tzatiki sauce awesome !!!! Thank you for the recipe.!
I will make these; sounds so good,
Just made these and they were so yummy!
These are amazing!!! The sauce pairs so well with the burger. This will become a regular menu item in my house!
I have a bunch of fresh veggies that I need to use up, do you think could I make these ahead of time and freeze raw between sheets of wax paper?
Yes, I think that would work great!
I love these! They’re so simple and delicious! My go to burger recipe!