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Healthy Burger Recipes

Featured Recipe: Spanish Pork Burgers

6 expert tips & healthy recipes for better burgers

By Jessie Price, Food Editor, EatingWell

Summer’s here. Father’s Day is upon us and Burger Season is officially in full swing. While EatingWell has dozens of healthy burger recipes, our Spanish Pork Burger is one of my favorite ways to mix up my burger repertoire. It’s boldly flavored with sautéed onions that keep it moist, plus Spanish paprika, garlic and green olives. The creamy mayonnaise spread is tangy with lemon and a hint of earthy saffron.

On top of fabulous flavor, this burger’s got decent nutrition marks. With just 364 calories, it makes a generous and utterly scrumptious meal that even works for someone on a diet. Just add a little green salad to get your vegetable servings in. An added bonus: 3 cups of sliced onions and whole-wheat burger buns give these burgers 5 grams of fiber per serving.

EatingWell worked with meat expert and cookbook author Bruce Aidells on keeping burgers healthy and delicious and developed this pork burger as well as 5 other amazing burgers. When we spoke with him recently for “Burgers to Flip Over,” he said that his approach to a burger is exactly the same as with sausage (one of his specialties). The most important step is getting great flavor combinations into the meat.

Bruce’s 6 tips for a better and healthier burger:

• Add flavor and moisture to lean burgers by incorporating other ingredients. Cheese, wild rice and barbecue sauce are great options.
• Don’t overcook the meat.
• Mix seasonings into the meat. Don’t just sprinkle your formed burgers with salt and pepper.
• Add a leaner, neutral-tasting meat like turkey to a fattier cut like lamb reduces saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Stud white-meat burgers with color to give them a little visual appeal.
• Get creative and use flavor combinations from your favorite ethnic foods. Green olives, pimenton de la Vera, saffron and manchego give these pork burgers a Spanish flair.

Check out our healthy burger collection, full of great burger recipes, condiments and tips, or try these delicious burger combinations:
Salmon & Wasabi Burger
Crab Cake Burgers
Smoky Bison Burgers
Burgers with Caramelized Onions

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