Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce is a fun twist on traditional hamburgers using your favorite Mediterranean flavors and ingredients. This burger is served on a pita pocket with a flavorful tzatziki sauce.  Grilling season never tasted so good!

Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce

Grilling season is upon us. We have been grilling out at our house a lot during the winter, because that is what us Midwesterners do. But for those that aren’t so adventurous now is the time when the weather is warming up and the grills are firing up for the season. If you are ready for grilling season, these Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce would be the perfect way to start it all out!

We love grilling in my house because it is an easy way to make dinner that involves little clean up {no pots for me to wash!} and we can all hang outside while we grill. It gives us the perfect change to enjoy our backyard together and play with the kids. I love adding a basket of vegetables to the grill to cook alongside our meat and sometimes chopped potatoes. It makes a complete meal that not only tastes great but is easy!

This Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce is a fun twist on hamburgers and pulls some of my favorite Mediterranean flavors and ingredients in. These are similar to kibbeh which is a Lebanese recipe my family makes a lot and I pulled those ingredients in to these burgers. I love to make sliders for my family so the kids have a small portion to eat but if sliders aren’t your thing you can make four larger burgers.

The burger uses ground beef {we use 80/20}, pine nuts, chopped red pepper and onion, cinnamon and cumin and then is served on a pita pocket with a creamy, flavorful mint yogurt sauce, tomato, red onion and lettuce. You can easily serve these Mediterranean burgers on a regular bun but I like mixing it up and serving it on pita for something different.  If the mint yogurt sauce isn’t your thing try spreading your favorite hummus on the pita which also makes a great addition.

And it just so happens that these Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce are the perfect way to celebrate Ohio Beef Month which happens to be in May! I recently spent a couple of days with the Ohio Beef Council and got the opportunity to meet some of the Ohio farmers in person. It was an amazing experience and I got to see firsthand the amazing care they provide to their animals. There are 17,000 beef farming families in Ohio, who are committed to providing excellent care of their animals, protecting the environment for future generations and to producing safe, healthy beef. One thing I never knew was that Ohioans spend $4.1 billion each year on beef, which is a healthy, high-quality protein choice. That is a lot of beef!

Beef is also a healthy addition to your weekly diet. A 3-ounce serving of beef provides more than 10 essential nutrients and half the daily recommended value of protein for less than 150 calories.  Beef is a nutrition powerhouse in many ways. Research shows that including lean beef daily as part of a healthy diet can help lower cholesterol levels, and exercise is more effective when paired with a high-protein diet.

As the weather warms this Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce make the perfect meal to add to the grill.  Pair them with Lebanese green beans, tabbouleh and hummus for a complete meal!

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Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Mediterranean Burger with Mint Yogurt Sauce is a fun twist on traditional hamburgers using your favorite Mediterranean flavors and ingredients. This burger is served on a pita pocket with a flavorful yogurt sauce. Grilling season never tasted so good!

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Ingredients

For the Mediterranean burgers:

• 1 lb. ground beef {we use 80/20 ground beef}
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup red pepper, seeds removed, chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 4 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped

For the mint yogurt sauce:

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cucumber
• 2 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat your grill.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the beef, pine nuts, red pepper, red onion, egg, olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin and chopped parsley and mix with hands until everything is combined. Shape the ground beef mixture into 2 inch patties {about 1/4 cup of meat per slider which makes 8 sliders} or 4 larger burgers.
3. Place the sliders on the grill and let cook for 4-5 minutes, flip them over, and cook for 4-5 more minutes or until they reach your desired doneness. We cook ours to medium-rare which is an internal temperature of 130-135 F.
4. While the sliders are cooking make the mint yogurt sauce: in a medium bowl mix together the yogurt, cucumber and mint. Set aside.
5. Once the sliders are done grilling place them in a pita pocket with a slice of tomatoes, red onion and lettuce along with a drizzle of mint yogurt sauce.

Notes

Feel free to use more or less spice depending on what you like. You can add cayenne red pepper for a bit of spice.

Try hummus as a spread with these burgers.

You can use regular slider buns or hamburger buns instead of pita bread if you like.

For more beef recipes and information head to Ohio Beef . You can also find them on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

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Today’s post is sponsored by the Ohio Beef Council.  As always my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.  Thank you for supporting the brands and products that make A Cedar Spoon possible.