TASTE
Lightened burger adopts patriotic tag
| • | The real deal |
By Elaine Magee
Q. I saw Paula Deen cooking a burger on television with butter and blue cheese in the middle. Can this be lightened? It's a great idea, but my family prefers to eat light and lean when possible.
A. We can absolutely lighten this up. The wonderful Paula Deen calls it her Black and Blue Burger, but I'm renaming it the Red, White and Blue Burger because I'm lightening it up in time for Memorial Day barbecues.
We are keeping the blue cheese from the original recipe, but we're using a little less and we're losing the half a stick of butter that gets mixed with it. Instead, we will be blending the blue cheese with light cream cheese. I used a super-lean ground beef (with around 6 percent fat) instead of ground chuck. If you go to a good meat counter, quality ground extra-lean beef should look fresh and red and it should taste and smell like a grilled lean steak when it's cooking. The "red" comes from plenty of ripe tomatoes sitting on top of the burger when you serve it.
Original recipe (including the bun) contains 700 calories, 47 grams fat, 23 grams saturated fat, 181 milligrams cholesterol and a gram of fiber.
RED, WHITE AND BLUE BURGER
In a small bowl, mash the blue cheese together with the cream cheese and pepper. Divide blue cheese mixture into 4 equal parts and shape each into a 1 1/2-inch-wide square.
Divide ground beef into 4 parts and shape into patties (about 1-inch thick). Place one blue-cheese square on top of each beef patty and gently press it into the center of each patty. Mold the ground beef around and on top of the cheese mixture to cover well. Sprinkle the top of each patty with some garlic salt and freshly ground pepper. Coat both sides of each burger lightly with canola cooking spray.
Cook hamburgers on a grill or in a nonstick skillet to desired doneness (about 3 minutes per side in a nonstick skillet on high heat). Let the burger rest for a few minutes, then top each with sliced tomatoes and a lettuce leaf and serve on a toasted whole-wheat hamburger bun with the condiments of your choosing.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
