Tilapia Burgers - Home Cooked Burger Alternative

Remember when I actually cooked here at In and Around Town?  It's been a while since I have talked about some of the recipes I have been making in the kitchen.  The reasons for the lack of home-cooked posts?  Because I have been trying to keep up with all the restaurants I have been going to (they add up quick!), and because we have been taking advantage of the weather and our new George Foreman Outdoor Grill and grilling up loads of veggies (delicious, but not exactly thrilling blog material).  So, this recipe gets back to the kitchen and is dedicated to my friend A in San Francisco, who has been looking for some more home cooking from In and Around Town.

I happened to stumble upon this recipe for tilapia burgers with watermelon salsa and avocado and knew it would have to be made quickly!  This recipe definitely takes a fish sandwich and makes it worthy of a the title of "burger!"

Tilapia Burgers

The Necessities (recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is):

• 1 1/2 pounds of tilapia
• 1/2 cup panko
• 1 large egg and 1 egg white
• 2 tablespoons of mustard (I used whole grain dijon)
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• pinch of black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon hot paprika (cause I had it! can use regular paprika)
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1 avocado
• 1 mango
• 1/4 red onion chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• juice of 1 lime
• whole wheat burger buns!

To start, I began to chop up the tilapia filets, but that got old quickly, so I broke out the food processor and 10 seconds later...fully chopped fish!  Definitely worth the extra clean up.

Tilapia Filet

All minced...

I dumped it all in a bowl and then went ahead and added everything from the ingredients list above up to the avocado.  Using my hands, I mixed everything together, trying to be careful not to go over board to prevent ending up with dense burgers.

Loads of herbs and spices

All mixed up

From there, I formed about 5 patties and placed them on a greased iron skillet set on medium heat.  They needed about 4-5 minutes per side, just enough so they turned a nice golden brown on the outside.  My issue is that I always have trouble figuring out when the fish is done, so I must admit I did cut into the middle more than once!

Cooking away

Turning golden brown

While the burgers were cooking, I chopped up all the mango, avocado, cilantro, and jalapeño, added them to a bowl and coated everything with some lime juice, letting it sit a bit so the flavors mixed.

The Salsa

Once it all was cooked up, I placed one of the burgers on a bun, topped it off with the salsa and served!

Fish Burger!

More fish burger!

This was super tasty and so easy to pull together for a weekend meal.  This is definitely a meal I will serve again, but also could adapt in any number of ways to make it like new again.