Tonight's date night was even more intimate than my last one, as it was with myself. I love these nights because I can experiment with complicated recipes that I rarely make time for. They are also, as I said, experiments, so they could always end up being really gross. I am, therefore, the best dinner guest for such evenings.
I decided to get my hands dirty tonight and make some yummy turkey pitas, starting from scratch with raw ground turkey. So let's get down to business:
RECIPE:
1 lb ground turkey
1 yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
3 (or, if your me, 200) cloves of garlic, diced
1/3 cup mint, chopped
2 T dried oregano (or really any of your favorite herbs. Parsley and/or basil are other good options.)
1 egg
2 T bread crumbs
3 t kosher salt
2 t ground pepper
1 T olive oil
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
Lettuce leaves of your choice (enough to place one or two in each pocket)
Pita pockets
Combine onions and garlic in a medium nonstick pan with your olive oil at medium heat. While this is cooking, combine ground turkey, green onions, egg, mint, oregano, bread crumbs, 2 t salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix all the ingredients together. Continue to stir and cook the onions/garlic until the onions start to become slightly clear but are still relatively firm. Remove from heat. Let cool, then add to the turkey mixture.
Continue to cook and flip patties until both sides begin to brown and even blacken.
While the patties are cooking, prepare your cucumber sauce. Put the chopped cucumber into a food processor and pulse until the cucumber pieces are really small. Like the picture below. I don't know how to describe that size. But really they can be any size you want, just know that the smaller they are, the more cucumber you'll get in each bite of sauce. Combine cucumber, 1 t salt, and yogurt and mix until completely blended.
When the patties are finished, place them on a paper towel for the excess grease to be absorbed.
If your pita pockets are larger, feel free to cut them in half. Mine are medium-sized, so I cut about 1/3 off and used the larger "half" for my patty. Toast the pita (you can even use a regular pop-up toaster if your pitas fit) to the toastiness of your liking, then add cucumber sauce, lettuce, and a patty.
By the time I finished washing my hands and putting all the pieces together, I had been snacking for so long that I wasn't even hungry. And it was 9 o'clock. You would think this would all add up to a really disappointing ending, but alas, my tastebuds still got their climax--I ate my whole pita. In like 5 seconds. I even got one of those lumps in my throat from basically inhaling my food. Ohmygosh. So good. Honestly, cardboard would taste good covered in cucumber sauce, but I promise the turkey patties are also extremely delicious. There is truly nothing you can't add to ground meat.
Anyway, I know this recipe kind of takes a lot of time, but it is super easy and super fun nonetheless, so try it!
Until your time again finds mine,
Julia
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