Last week I received a beautiful bunch of fresh basil from my CSA and I wanted to do something with it immediately. The fragrance that filled the car on our way home from the farm was enough to convince me that something with fresh basil had to be made that very evening. I also happened to have a good amount of fresh pasture raised pork in my freezer thanks to our friends here locally who raise happy hogs. Below is what I made with our yummy pork and fresh basil.
First, please read this disclaimer: These burgers are so good you will need to be prepared for total food nirvana and the chances of eating more than one burger is incredibly high. Even 4 year old children will be quiet at the dinner table as these burgers are messily and happily consumed. Consider yourself warned.
Basil Pork Burgers with Mushrooms and Basil Garlic Mayo
The Burgers
2 pounds ground pork
1/2 cup diced fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1. Mix all of the above ingredients together and form into 8-10 even sized burgers.
2. Grill or pan fry over medium heat. Start out cooking for about 4 minutes on one side, or until browned, flip, and cook for another 3-4 minutes on the other side. If you make your burgers really thick, flip again and repeat the same cook time on both sides. With pork burgers, cook those babies until they are no longer pink in the middle but watch them because you do not want these to overcook and dry out! For best results, you can check for doneness with a meat thermometer. Internal temp of the burgers should be 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Mushrooms
Make these while the burgers are cooking
6 cups sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion diced
1/4 cup coconut oil
Sea salt and black pepper
1. In a large skillet, melt the coconut oil over medium to medium high heat.
2. Add the onions and saute until transulcent.
3. Add the mushrooms to the onions and saute until the mushrooms are tender.
4. Season with a little sea salt and black pepper.
The Basil Garlic Mayo
1 cup homemade mayo
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup basil, finely chopped
Mix the mayo with the basil and the garlic to serve on top of the burgers.
To serve the burgers, we placed one of the burgers on top of a lettuce leaf, topped with a big scoop of the basil mayo, followed by a spoonful of the mushroom onion mixture.
To. Die. For.
As always, enjoy!!
Basil Pork Burgers with Mushrooms and Basil Garlic Mayo is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
