Spicy turkey burgers with tangy guacamole, fresh vegetables, mozzarella, and a lemon poppy-seed sauce.

My name is Tim McCauley and I am a 24 year old fire fighter in a city called Elgin located in Illinois. I do a lot of the cooking when I am on shift at the firehouse. When I saw that recipes should highlight the foods, products and traditions of a community and, or a region of the nation. I chose whole wheat buns and turkey because of the growing trend of healthier eating that is currently taking place in this country. Everywhere you look there are people trying to watch there weight and make healthier decisions. I feel that this burger does that for me and especially all of the heavier firefighters. I chose guacamole because of the community I work in. Elgin has a very large Hispanic population. I feel that the Hispanic population is rising in almost every part of the country. Instead of gripe about it I try to embrace it. That is why I added a famous Hispanic side dish on my burger. I had to have a cheese on there, seeing we live so close to Wisconsin I figured it would add a little bit of a regional flare to my dish. The lemon poppy-seed sauce may seem weird on a burger, but it brings everything together. It represents America’s sense of adventurer’s attitude into exploring new avenues of culture.
This burger encompasses to me the changing face of America; that is why I feel it is a great local American burger.

Ingredients:

Turkey patties
2 -1.25 lbs packages of Turkey Store Ground Turkey
1 package of Turkey Store Hot Italian Turkey Sausages
2 tablespoon Salt
2 tablespoon pepper
4 tablespoons cayenne pepper seasoning
4 tablespoons chili pepper seasoning
2 large eggs
¼ cup of Italian season bread crumbs

Grill seasoning rub
¼ cup cayenne pepper seasoning
¼ cup chili pepper seasoning
2 tablespoon Salt
2 tablespoon pepper

Poppy-seed sauce
1/3 cup white sugar
½ cup white vinegar
1 fresh squeezed lemon.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
1 teaspoon grated onion
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
½ cup sour cream

Tangy Guacamole
2 Avocados
1 Roma tomato
¼ cup of poppy-seed sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1teaspoon pepper

Other ingredients
6 whole wheat buns
1 seedless cucumber
4 Roma tomatoes
1 head of lettuce
1 package of finely shredded mozzarella cheese
Wooden skewers

Instructions:

Directions
Grill seasoning rub
1.Mix all ingredients into a bowl and set aside

Hot turkey patties
1.Remove and discard skin from the hot turkey Italian sausage. Take all of the sausage meat and place in a bowl.
2.Place rest of patty ingredients into a bowl and mix.
3.Mix for about 3 minutes making sure to really mix in the ground sausage into the ground turkey so there are no big lumps of hot turkey sausage.
4.Make 6 round patties.
5.Rub seasoning mix on both sides of the burger.
6.Set burgers aside.

Lemon poppy-seed sauce
1.In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, vinegar, salt, mustard and onion, and juice of 1 fresh squeezed lemon and process for 20 seconds. With blender or food processor on high, gradually add oil in a slow, steady stream.
2.Stir in poppy seeds.
3.Fold in sour cream.
4.Set aside

Tangy Guacamole
1.Finely dice Roma tomato
2.Take Avocadoes and remove outer shell, cut out seed, and spoon out the middle of the avocado and place in a bowl with tomatoes.
3.Add salt, pepper, and poppy-seed cream
4.Mash up with a potato masher until smooth.
5.Set aside

Preparation

1.Preheat grill on high for 10 minutes.
2.Lower heat to medium and place the 6 seasoned hot turkey burgers on the grill.
3.Reduce heat to medium and cook on medium for 20 minutes; flipping every 5 minutes.
4.Toast the top and bottom of 6 of the whole wheat buns.
5.Clean all vegetables.
6.Cut seedless cucumber, and tomatoes into about ¼ inch thick pieces. And set aside
7.Cut up lettuce so they are dog-eared shaped pieces.
8.On the top bun, in this order, place 3 tomato slices, 3 seedless cucumber slices, 1 dollop of tangy guacamole, and 3 pieces of dog-eared shaped iceberg lettuce. (This should keep everything together.)
9.Set top pieces aside.
10.After 20 minutes on the grill, add the mozzarella cheese to the top of the burger. Close lid and let cook for 1 more minute. Cheese will not be completely melted, but beginning too.
11.Place turkey burger with melted cheese on top onto the bottom toasted bun.
12.Add Lemon poppy-seed sauce to the top of the burger.
13.Place top bun, with all the fixings’’ on it on top.
14.Hold in place with a wood skewer.
15.Enjoy.