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.

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