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.

Ingredients

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.

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16 Comments

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 🙂

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