Cypriot Kefde Burger Recipe
Most nations have a take on a meat ball, in the Middle East and India they make koftas, the Greeks and Cypriots make keftedes. The simplicity of mince mixed with spices and bound together with potatoes, bread or eggs doesn’t take anything away from the sheer pleasure and child-like enthusiasm everyone shares when you eat a meatball of any kind.
I felt like a lighter version and a healthier twist on the original keftedes. The authentic version are shaped into 5cm oval balls and fried in oil. Cutting down on saturated fats by baking them, took nothing away from the flavour and there was enough fat in the mince to bake a crisp outer crust that you get when the keftedes are fried. Adding the spices of a classic Greek Cypriot kefde (Singular Kefde, plural Keftedes) to a burger patty worked really well.
These kefde burgers are a lovely addition to your midweek dinner. I served the kefde burger patties in a roll, with Tzatziki. Traditionally we serve fried potato chips with keftethes and a Greek salad as a meal. In the spirit of lightening everything up I served a salad, but made sweet potato fries instead of potato fries. I cut skinny fries from 6 small sweet potatoes and added 2 tablespoons of oil they baked in a hot oven for 25 minutes.
These Kefde burgers are a great way to do something different with a pack of mince.
- 1 small potato peeled and halved
- 25g fresh parsley
- 1 small onion peeled and halved
- 1 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 Tablespoons heaped rolled oats
- 500g beef mince
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper to taste
- To serve
- Burger buns or pita bread
- Salad
- Tzatziki
- Add the onion, parsley and potato to a food processor.
- Blend until everything has been finely chopped.
- Add the egg, spices, oats, salt, pepper and mince.
- Pulse untill well combined.
- Shape into burgers and bake for 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees.
- Serve
The cooking time will depend on how thick you have made your burgers, thinner burger patties will cook in 10-15 minutes.
For more burger ideas have a look at my previous post: Burger Ideas