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Spiced Lamb Burgers

5.0(336)

This recipe came from a revelation in the ’70s, when my friend Semeon Tsalbins introduced me to the lamb burger. It is ground lamb — shoulder is best — highly seasoned and grilled rare. Because lamb is the most full-flavored of the everyday meats, it makes a more delicious plain burger than beef. Cooked with nothing but salt, it’s fantastic. Cooked with a variety of spices, as it is here, it’s a game-changer. You can also stuff the burger, as Mr. Tsalbins does on occasion, with smoked mozzarella.

by Mark Bittman·published 2010-05-26

Open original recipe

Dinner, Easy, Quick, Weeknight, Burgers, Main Course

Servings

4 burgers

Total time

20 min

Calories / serving

475 kcal

Ingredients (14)

serves

1 1/2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into chunkslamb-shoulder
1 medium (or 1/2 large) onion, peeled and cut into chunksonion
1 fresh chili, preferably jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground coriandercoriander
1 teaspoon ground cumincumin
1/2 teaspoon turmericturmeric
Saltsalt
freshly ground black pepper to tastepepper
Diced mango to garnish (optional)mango
green and red pepper to garnish (optional)
red onion to garnish (optional)
scallion to garnish (optional)scallion
shredded carrot to garnish (optional)carrot
shredded lettuce, to garnish (optional)lettuce

Instructions (3 steps)

01If grilling or broiling, heat should be medium-high and rack about 4 inches from fire. Put lamb and onion into a food processor (in batches if your machine is small) and pulse until coarsely ground. Put in a bowl with chili, coriander, cumin and turmeric, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix, handling the meat as little as possible, until combined. Taste and adjust seasonings. Handling meat as lightly as possible to avoid compressing it, shape it into 4 or more burgers.