pork and zucchini burgers with spring onion and cumin

This fabulous recipe was adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s recipe for turkey and courgette burgers from their book Jerusalem. I have made my own sour cream dip to go with it (inspired by theirs), and I have used pork because this is what I had in my freezer. Also, minced turkey is not easy to come by in South Africa.
I pretty much love everything these guys do and adore the Middle Eastern flavour combinations. My mixture was quite wet and didn’t bind well, so I added breadcrumbs and an extra egg. I never like it when my burgers fall apart into crumbs which can easily happen when you are adding so many extra things. I made big and small burgers. Smaller, because they cook more easily and speedily. Great as a snack. Big because I wanted this for shooting purposes. The smaller burgers can be eaten just with the soured cream and sumac dip, or stuffed into a mini pita breads to make sliders. All were delicious.
* Cooks notes ~ I am always concerned about cooking pork / poultry all the way through, so with the big burger pattys, I finished them off in the oven. I prefer to do this as I find by frying them until cooked all the way through they tend to both dry out and over brown. I simply put them in a 180 C oven for about 15 mintes and loosely covered the tray with foil. The original recipe also recommends this but at 200C for a shorter period of time.
pork and zucchini burgers with spring onion and cumin
Print RecipeIngredients
- burgers
- 500 g minced pork
- 200 g zucchini / courgette coarsely grated
- 40 g spiring onoins finely chopped
- 2 large or medium eggs - free-range
- 2 T chopped mint
- 2 T chopped coriander
- 1 t ground cumin
- 1/2 ground white pepper
- a few grinds of black pepper
- 1 t cayenne
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 t salt
- aprox 100ml sunflower oil for frying
- soured cream dip
- 1/2 cup creme fraiche
- 1 T lemon juice
- 1 t lemon zest
- 1/2 salt
- 1/2 pepper
- 1 t sumac
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 t chopped mint
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
Instructions
- To make the dip add all the ingredients together and mix until well combined.
- Pre heat the oven to 180C
- Heat some olive oil in a large non - stick frying pan and roll out the burgers to your size preference. Fry in batches until brown on all sides. Transfer to a baking tray and finish off in the oven for 8 - 20 minutes depending on their size.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with the sour cream dip.
- make into burgers or mini sliders with sliced red onion and lettuce (optional)
The dip is a wonderful all-round condiment that would be delicious with grilled lamb, vegetables or chicken. I love the zesty, mintiness of it, and the sumac gives it a nice sharp edge.
I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
Visit my Drizzle and Dip Facebook page or Google+ to get updates of all my posts or subscribe up in the top right.
I can also be found enthusiastically pinning beautiful food images on Pinterest, and snapping pics of my life in Cape Town and what I eat on Instagram
The recipe looks great and as usual your images are mouthwatering. Must try this
Thanks Ev 🙂
Yum, I really want to make this! But where can one get sumac (in Cape Town) or what is a suitable substitute? Thanks
I’m going through a major burger stage – I can’t seem to get enough of it.
This is a great variation! I also love me some red onions on ’em. 😉
I <3 <3 <3 you super gorgeous photos, and I can't say no to your Middle Eastern flavour burgers either. I especially love that grated zucchini that you sneaked in them. Wonderful!!! 🙂
Thanks Pang – Ottolenghi is a food genius IMHO.
yum.. craving a burger now! this look TOO good.
Looks wonderful!! I could go for a burger right now!!
Hi Sam! I just found your blog today and wanted to tell you WOW! Your photos are AMAZING! Every recipe I combed through looks incredibly delicious…now I just need to choose a few to try out 🙂 These burgers definitely look like a great place to start. Thanks for sharing such delicious food and gorgeous photos 🙂
I made these burgers with chicken mince. They worked well.
Thats great Susan, thnaks for letting me know
Hi karen. Thank you so much for the really kind words.
Sam :-0
These burgers look absolutely amazing! I don’t usually like courgettes, but I think they’d be alright hidden in a burger. Your food photography is always amazing!
Have a lovely week!
Thnaks April 🙂
Now this is an awesome burger! I love sumac! And I have zucchini in the garden! I can’t wait to make these 🙂
Hello, i think that i noticed you visited my weblog so i got here to go back the prefer?.I am trying to to find
things to enhance my site!I guess its ok to use a few of your
ideas!!