Thai Pork Burgers and Lettuce and Lime Salad

Thai Pork Burgers and Lettuce and Lime Salad

These Thai inspired beauties are the new favourite in the house, lighter than a classic beef burger, they are beautifully fragrant and spicy.  They are also a doddle to make, and most of the ingredients for the spice paste were already lying around in my kitchen, so no long searches for obscure ingredients.

These little burgers go superbly well with chunks of roasted sweet potato and/or fragrant Jasmine rice,  and the lettuce and lime salad.  This salad is crisp, bitter, refreshing, salty and zesty, a cleansing balance to the meaty spiciness of the burgers and is pretty delicious.  Close your eyes and you could be in Bangkok.... 

INGREDIENTS:

Thai Pork Burgers (makes enough for 2 greedy people):

500g Minced Pork

Thumb sized piece of Ginger, peeled

4 Garlic Cloves, peeled

2 Chillies

1 Fresh Lemongrass Stalk, outer skin peeled off

1 Small Red Onion

Zest and Juice of one Lime

1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

1 Small bunch fresh Coriander, stalks and leaves roughly chopped

1. In a food processor, blend the ginger, garlic, chillies, lemongrass, red onion, soy sauce and lime zest and lime juice until it becomes a paste.
2. Add this to the pork mince with the chopped Coriander and mix with your hands until thoroughly mixed.  
3. Form into small burgers and fry in a little oil until brown and cooked.  Serve with Jasmine Rice and/or roasted Sweet Potato chunks, and the Lettuce and Lime salad.  

Lettuce and Lime Salad

Crisp white lettuce, washed and roughly chopped

Small handful of Coriander, leaves and stalks

10 (or so) Mint leaves

Juice of half a lime (or to taste)

1-2 Spring Onions finely sliced

1 Green Chili, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)

Good pinch of Salt

1. Roughly chop the lettuce and place in a large bowl
2. Finely chop the Coriander, Mint, Spring Onions and Chili and toss with the lettuce leaves.  
3. Squeeze a generous about of lime juice over the salad and a good pinch of salt.  Taste and add more lime juice or salt as necessary.  Serve with the Thai Pork Burgers