My love of burgers knows no season. But the ripe seasonal produce during the summer months, and the warmer grilling weather always brings me back to making new burger recipes.
This particular recipe started with some leftover pesto, and from there became a summer favorite. I still happened to have sweet potatoes around when I made this recipe. But soon they’re about to get expensive during the height of summer, and then I just sub in regular sliced potatoes instead. Yukon golds or red potatoes are my faovrite to grill because they don’t dry out.
The prep for this recipe is nice and easy, just slice your choice of potato and onion. Then you’ll mix some pesto (homemade or store bought – both work great) into the burger patties.
The potatoes, onions, and burgers grill…
… while you cut up the tomatoes and toss them with a little more pesto.
Once the burgers are done, you stack them up and top with the pesto coated tomatoes.
A great way to mix things up is to change out the ground turkey for beef or pork, and you can also use any flavor of pesto. Instead of classic pesto, you can use cilantro pesto or kale pesto. The options are endless really, you could also sub diced peaches in for the tomatoes – and as you can see there’s no end to the burger fun.
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Pesto Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Buns
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 4-6 servings or about 10 slider burgers 1x
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, or potato or choice, 1 1/2 pounds
- 1 large red onion, ends removed and sliced 1/2″ thick
Pesto Burgers:
- 1 pkg ground turkey, 1 1/2 pounds
- 1/2 Teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup pesto of choice, see notes
Tomato Bruschetta Topping:
- 2 cups quartered cherry tomatoes, 10 ounces
- 1/4 cup pesto + 1/4 cup for topping the burgers
Instructions
- Preheat a grill over medium high heat until it reaches a steady temperature of 350ºF-400ºF.
- Trim the ends from the potatoes and slice them into 1/2″ rounds. Set them aside with the sliced onions.
- For the burgers, mix together the ground turkey, black pepper, and pesto until thoroughly combined. Form the burgers into patties as big as your potato rounds. Depending on the size of the potatoes, your burger size should be around slider size, about 3-5″.
- Clean the grill well and oil it or spray with your choice of cooking spray to prevent the burgers from sticking.
- Place the sweet potatoes/potatoes and onions on the grill and cook for 8 minutes or so, or until the sweet potatoes are half way done. Turn the sweet potatoes and onions, and place the burgers on the grill. Grill the burgers for 6-8 minutes per side or until done in the center. The onions will be done before the burgers, and the potatoes also might be done. Remove each item as it finishes cooking, and place it on a serving platter.
- While the burgers are cooking, prepare the tomato topping by tossing the prepared tomatoes with 1/4 cup of the pesto.
- When the burgers are done, stack them up starting with the sweet potatoes, then onion slices, and finally the burger patties. Place a small dollop of the 1/4 cup of pesto on each burger, and mound a small amount of the tomato topping on each. Serve the burgers with any remaining tomato topping on the side.
Notes
If you’re strictly dairy free, make sure the pesto you use is dairy free. I have a recipe for homemade basil pesto that you can alter to be dairy free by leaving out the parmesan and subbing in 1/2 of a ripe avocado.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins