Healthy Toppings for Burgers
To Your Health: Using Toppings to Make Your Weekend Burgers Healthier
The weekend is fast approaching and if you’re cooking burgers for family and friends why not try getting creative with toppings to make them more exciting to palates and healthier at the same time! Using your George Foreman grill and some outside-the-box topping ideas, your weekend meal can not only be healthier, but also truly memorable to your family, friends and guests.
Find Variety in Veggies
Top burgers with fresh salsa for a refreshingly healthy taste
While the standard assortment of burger toppings does include a few veggies with lettuce, onions and tomato, you can be even healthier if you explore some other vegetable alternatives. You can try mushrooms, spinach leaves instead of lettuce or use different kinds of lettuce, avocado, roasted red peppers, sprouts, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes and various types of fresh hot peppers, just to name a few. If you’re in the mood for Southwest flavor, you can even make fresh salsa from scratch, which would include a whole variety of fresh vegetables and herbs.
The great thing about using your vegetable toppings in a more unique way is that diners will be more likely to top burgers with something that they think is a specially prepared item for the meal, even if they’d skip over the normal veggies on a standard burger spread. They’ll be focused on the uniqueness and the variety, without really noticing that they’re eating a much healthier meal prepared with more fresh vegetables.
Have Fun with Fruit
The most recognized of these is the classic grilled pineapples rings on Hawaiian burgers, which are absolutely delicious and cook in just 2-4 minutes on your George Foreman grill. This is even a kid-friendly healthy burger option, since the pineapples bring in more sweetness. If you choose this option, you may want to season or marinade your meat with teriyaki or a sweet barbeque sauce.
Beyond pineapple, fruit toppings on burgers can include other tropical fruits like mango and papaya for a really Caribbean feel, or you can go with a more traditional combination like apple slices with walnuts (bringing in a nice serving of omega-3 with the nuts, too).
As with the veggies, you can include even more, fresh fruit on toppings is you create a fresh salsa that includes several ingredients. Caribbean fruit salsa burgers are best with ground pork or turkey, instead of beef, making them a truly memorable alternative to the standard burgers you typically see on the table. Even for a party, you can do smaller mini-burger or slider versions of these to round out a delicious, healthy party spread.
Be Choosey with Cheese
Low-fat cheese slices are easier to melt the way you want with a G-Broil Grill
Most people may shy away from low-fat cheese slices, because they can be notoriously difficult to melt, but they do make cheeseburgers healthier so it’s a good idea to try and use them when you can – you just may need to experiment with brands of cheese to find one that works the best for your taste. If you happen to have a G-Broil™ series grill, low-fat cheese slices are a lot easier to do because you can melt the cheese on top of your burger directly on the grill, so you get the right amount of melting as you finish cooking the meat.
If you don’t have a grill that lets you melt cheese directly on it, another good solution is to do stuffed burger patties with the cheese inside. You use shredded cheese, instead of sliced, and it cooks the entire time you’re cooking the burger for the smooth, even consistency you want in the cheese of a burger. In addition, you can stuff other healthy ingredients in with the cheese, like fresh herbs and leaf veggies – say for a spinach and mozzarella stuffing, for instance.
Whatever you choose, toppings are a great way to add variety and healthier eating to a classic weekend burger meal or get together. With a little creativity and fresh ingredients, you can wow diners with a special meal, that’s simply healthier by design.
