Turkey burger with portobello ‘bun’ & fresh side salad
A juicy turkey patty topped with melted cheddar, sandwiched between two grilled portobello caps instead of a bun. The mushroom caps add an earthy richness that bread never could, and they shave the carbs down to 20 grams for the entire plate.
A fresh side salad of tomato, cucumber, and shredded iceberg comes with its own dressing: yogurt, mayonnaise, and curry powder mixed into something you will want on everything. 675 calories, 29 grams of protein, 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- 99% lean ground turkey breast 3 ounces
- yellow mustard 0.5 teaspoon
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- cheddar cheese, shredded 1 slice
- portobello mushrooms 2
- cucumber 0.5
- tomatoes 2
- iceberg lettuce, shredded 1 handful
- mayonnaise 1 tablespoon
- yogurt, nonfat 1.5 tablespoon
- curry powder 0.5 teaspoon
Method
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Mix the ground turkey with the mustard and some salt and pepper. Shape it with your hands into a burger the size of the portobellos.
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Heat half of the oil in a pan and cook the turkey burger until done, in about 10 minutes. Flip halfway through. Place the cheese slice on the burger in the last 2 minutes of cooking.
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Remove the stems from the portobellos and lightly brush them with the remaining oil. Grill the portobellos in a hot grill pan for 6-8 minutes until browned all over.
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Slice the cucumber and tomatoes. Combine the lettuce, tomato, and cucumber in a bowl.
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In a small bowl, make a sauce from the mayonnaise, yogurt, and curry powder.
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Place one of the portobellos on a plate. Top it with the turkey burger, half of the curry sauce and some of the salad. Cover with the other portobello.
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Serve the portobello sandwich with the remaining salad. Use the leftover curry sauce as a dressing for the salad.
Press the center of the turkey patty slightly thinner than the edges before cooking. Lean ground turkey puffs up as it cooks, and the indent keeps the burger flat so it sits snugly inside the portobello caps without sliding.
Mushrooms are roughly 92% water. That extra bulk per calorie is not just filler. In a trial with 32 adults, protein-matched mushrooms produced significantly less hunger and greater fullness than meat (Hess et al., 2017). The portobello bun is cutting carbs and adding fullness at the same time.
Appetite, 2017 — mushroom satiety vs. meat · DOIBehind this recipe
Why use portobello mushrooms instead of a regular bun?
Two large portobello caps weigh roughly 130 to 160 grams but contain only a few grams of carbs and about 35 to 50 calories. A standard burger bun adds 25 to 35 grams of carbs and 120 to 150 calories. The swap brings the entire meal down to 20 grams of carbs. That said, going low-carb at one meal does not mean you need to go low-carb everywhere. Research shows that total calorie balance matters more than carb levels for fat loss.
Read the full evidence reviewIs 29 grams of protein enough in one sitting?
Yes. The idea that your body can only use 30 grams of protein per meal comes from a misreading of short-term muscle protein synthesis studies. Your body absorbs and uses all the protein you eat. It just processes larger amounts more slowly. For a single-serving meal at 675 calories, 29 grams of protein is 17% of total energy, which sits comfortably within research-supported ranges for muscle maintenance. More on the per-meal protein limit.
Read the full evidence review71% of calories come from fat here. Is that a problem?
Most of the fat comes from olive oil, a slice of cheddar, and a tablespoon of mayonnaise. None of those are unusual in a single meal. The recipe looks high-fat because the protein source (99% lean turkey) contributes almost no fat, so the fat from cooking oil and condiments makes up a larger share than usual. Dietary fat does not cause fat gain. Calorie balance does. The word 'fat' in food and the word 'fat' on your body share a word, nothing else.
Read the full evidence review
