Turkey is not just for Thanks Giving!
Here is a recipe for a flavourful summer burger that does not load your plate with saturated fats or stress your digestion with a mountain of animal based protein.
Packed with herbs that balance your microbiome and support immunity and juicy apple for added fibre and vitamin C, this burger ‘stretches’ organic Turkey meat with quinoa so that you get a bigger bang for your buck.
But let’s be clear that all of these ingredients = flavour!
Turkey can often be the meat that we only eat once a year when in reality it has a valuable place in the diet as it is packed with tryptophan, the amino acid that is a building block for our happy neurotransmitter serotonin.
Without sufficient tryptophan in the diet you might be feeling low and blue and explaining these emotions away as ‘just your hormones’.
Can we outright ban the phrase ‘just your hormones,’ for midlife women?
With research showing us the frequent hot flashes earlier on in menopause being related to heart issues as we age and new research on the microbiome telling us how important a low sugar/high fibre can be for our mood and cognitive function, explaining away a low mood, uncomfortable sweaty waves over our bodies and mood swings as ‘just being hormones’ is abandoning our very best midlife health!
One way we can show up for ourselves at midlife is nourishing our bodies with delicious, dense nutrition that provides our bodies with the building blocks for our very best health.
When we are supporting our bodies to build serotonin, we are going to feel our mood lift.
As serotonin os also the precursor to melatonin, our sleep hormone and acts as a powerful appetite suppressor in the body, we are also going to sleep better and stand a better chance of losing that midlife muffin top and maintaining our ideal weight during peri-menopause.
That is the gentle power of food and nutrition ladies. When you do something right for one aspect of your health, you are going to feel the benefits in other areas too.
Health is holistic and our bodies are all connected.
Ingredients
1lb 470g ground turkey
1 apple grated
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 grated onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 bunch fresh parsley finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
Wash quinoa in a fine sieve to remove saponins which may taste bitter.
Cook 2 cups quinoa to yield 4 cups cooked. Quinoa should cook for about fifteen minutes until the tiny 'tails' appear from the grain. Reserve 1/2 cup for this recipe and keep in refrigerator to make quinoa salad.
While quinoa cooks, grate apple and onion into a bowl.
Add garlic, herbs and spices.
Add turkey and cooked quinoa when ready.
Work with the hands to distribute all the ingredients evenly.
Form into 6 patties ready for cooking.
Cook on a griddle or barbecue on a medium heat for 7 minutes on each side until patties are cooked through.