Saturday’s Basket – Jalapeno Ranch Slaw Burgers

After last week’s burger from one of the talented prepared food trucks, Belmont Butchery Meat on the Street, I was on a mission to create my own magical summertime sandwich of perfection.  Since I was surrounded by fresh, seasonal, colorful vegetables, my mind focused in on what what I wanted on the burger first.  I needed good texture, something appealing to the eye and definitely full of flavor.  First find – sun gold tomatoes from Amy’s Garden, next find – red cabbage, another find – fresh parsley and one last veggie to complete a very non-traditional slaw – spring onions.  Assemblage comes in a little later.  The final piece to my fresh farm food scavenger hunt was ground beef…at least 1 lb for big, juicy hamburgers for two.  I was in luck, Faith Farm had just what I was looking for.  The pictures will really tell it all on this one.

Sun Gold Tomatoes from Amy's Garden

Jalapeno Ranch Slaw Burgers

Slaw

(makes 4-6 servings)

1/2 small red cabbage, shredded

1/2 pint sun gold tomatoes, quartered

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

3 spring onions, greens and whites diced

Dressing:

(makes 1 cup – save remainder to top salads, sandwiches, eggs, chips, chicken, what have you…)

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp fresh chopped chives

1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 tsp fresh dill, chopped

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 jalapeno, diced

1 Serrano chili, fresh grated

pinch of salt

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, tomatoes, chives and parsley. Set aside. Combine all ingredients for ranch dressing in a separate bowl, use a hand grater to grate the entire Serrano chili into the dressing. Mix well. For the slaw, add about 1/4 cup of dressing and combine. Add more dressing if desired and finish with a little extra salt and pepper to taste. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before serving to let the flavors come together.  Store remainder of ranch in a separate, air tight container in the fridge.

For the burgers, we keep it simple – scant 1/4 tsp garlic salt and 1/4 tsp pepper per 1 lb of meat.  Form into patties and add a sprinkle of kosher salt to the outside of the burgers just before grilling. Grill for about 4-5 minutes on each side over 400° grill for medium to medium rare burgers. The Faith Farm ground beef came out perfectly, so much flavor for so little work and the burgers were perfectly juicy.

Plate it up on a whole wheat bun with a heaping mound of the Jalapeno Ranch Slaw, nothing else needed!