Southwest Sliders over Spicy Avocado Slaw

The weather is changing here in Denver and spring seems to have arrived! Which naturally, calls for grilling. Our tiny house doesn't have air conditioning, so once the warm weather decides to stick around, we don't cook indoors for fear of raising the internal temp of our home to dangerous highs. Unfortunately, our patio table's glass top shattered this winter under the weight of snow so our outdoor cooking had to find a new venue last night. Naturally, we invited ourselves over to UTM's house, our best friend, honorary uncle and Godfather to our daughter, to grill. I took over the kitchen and we had a lovely meal outside by the fire. Now, let me preface some of this critique with the fact that our UTM is boarderline a gourmet cook. He's amazing and can create crazy dishes from original ideas. I, as you know, cannot and I'm forever nervous to cook for him.

First Thoughts: 
 
Ok, I really need to make an effort to find recipes that could possibly turn out poorly. This recipe is from my absolute favorite Paleo recipe blog: www.paleomg.com. Juli, the author/chef is a trainer at my Crossfit gym. She's badass, completely inspiring and a freaking phenomenal cook. Unfortunately, UTM hates turkey burgers with a passion. He refers to them as a "foul, cruel joke" (very punny). Thus, we modified the recipe a wee. We used Buffalo instead. Also a delicious lean meat. Because of this we didn't use the suggested 1 Tablespoon of fat. We also grilled these instead of skillet cooking.

The Recipe:

The actual link to the recipe page is: http://paleomg.com/southwest-turkey-sliders-spicy-avocado-slaw/. Claims a 15 minute prep, 10 minute cook time for the sliders. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
For the burgers

• 1lb ground turkey
• 1/4 red onion, minced
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 poblano pepper, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon fat (bacon fat or coconut oil)                                                                                                           

For the slaw

• 1 small head of cabbage or bag of cabbage, chopped
• 2 avocados
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste
•                                                                  

Notes on ingredients: As I posted above, we used Buffalo and omitted the tablespoon of fat. We also found that because our avocados weren't quite ripe enough, we had to add a little extra olive oil, lemon and lime juice to make the actual "mayo" for the slaw. I'm sure if we'd had good ripe avocados, we would've been fine. 

The Method:

First make your burgers

1. Add all your ingredients for your burgers in a large bowl.
2. Shape small burger patties.
3. Heat up a large skillet under medium heat with a bit of fat in it (I used bacon fat) and add your sliders. Flip after about 3-5 minutes or when you see the sides of your sliders begin to turn a white color (meaning they are cooking through).

Now make your slaw

1. Pull out your handy dandy food processor, add all your ingredients for the slaw other than the cabbage and pulse until smooth.
2. Pour your avocado “mayo” on the cabbage and mix. Top off with a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Place your cabbage on a plate and top off with your sliders!
4. Consume!

The Critique:

Ease of Recipe: 5/5 Stars

 

The estimated prep and cook time is completely right on. The only thing we had trouble with was the consistency of the "mayo", but I'm not sure that there is any blame there except against Whole Foods who only stock unripened avocados.

Cooking Method: 5/5 Stars

Very easy to understand and very easy to pull off. We used a handy little gadget from Sur La Table that helped us form and grill our sliders, which was helpful for portioning correctly.

Flavor: 5/5 Stars

Delicious. The buffalo was a lovely alternative. They have a nice southwestern kick without being too terribly spicy.

Kid Friendliness: 4/5

Now to be fair, this blog is not geared towards being a resource for kid friendly foods (although many of her breakfasts are incredibly kid friendly). My kids wouldn't eat the veggies in the burgers because of the texture. It would be really easy to set aside a couple of sliders for kids before adding all the chopped veggies though. And my kids already usually opt to have their burgers sans buns.
 
Photo Evidence: 5/5 Stars

Yummy.

 

 

Even our gourmet supreme UTM enjoyed them...

 Overall: 4.5/5 Stars. Just a great spring/summer recipe!