Tarragon and Thyme Lamb Burgers Topped With 5 Minute Tarragon Tzatziki

By my accounting we have truly moved into grilling season. I love to grill. Burgers, brats, spicy Italian sausage, steaks, chicken, veggies, you get the idea…

Unfortunately, I am currently suffering from lack-of-bbq-itis. You may be imagining that the major symptom of this terribly un-tasty disease, is a lack of consumption of bbq’d foods. This, surprisingly, is incorrect. Lack-of-bbq-itis in fact, means the affected individual is entirely without a bbq on which to grill the afore mentioned foods.

Tragic, I know. How did I manage to end up with this affliction you might ask? Well, I did actually have a bbq until very recently. I hadn’t yet fired it up to grill for this season. It was sitting, waiting patiently, on the back patio in my backyard. But…

About a month ago we had our roof well, re-roofed. All the shingles and under layers pulled all the way off, and completely re-done. (Our roof sustained some damage during all of that heavy raining and flooding in Colorado last year.) In the course of their work the roofers moved our bbq and trash cans, and pretty much anything else that was in their way off the porch so they could work. They never moved it back.

So about a week later, late in the evening I was taking care of the night time chores, including taking the trash cans out to the curb for pick up. The trash cans, which were completely full and very heavy were down in the backyard grass and had to be pulled up onto the patio before I could wheel them out front. I tugged, pulled, yanked with all my might to try and pull the first trash can up on the patio. It wouldn’t budge. I repeated the pulling and tugging again, it didn’t work. I possibly kicked the trash can once or twice in frustration and finally decided to give it one last go.

With Herculean effort I pulled the trash can up onto the patio and smashed my entire backside into the bbq. (Did I mention I was doing this more or less in the dark? We don’t have a back porch light.) The bbq promptly toppled over onto the concrete with a resounding crash worthy of the best rock’n roll songs.  My backside wasn’t too happy at this point.

By the light of the next day it was apparent I had managed to completely decimate the bbq in one fell swoop and give myself a wicked looking bruise. Hence my current case of lack-of-bbq-itis. I’ve gota admit I was totally steamed. I was thinking, “This is terrible, no burgers, no sausage, no  steaks!” (Please imagine that terrible horror movie screechy noise right about now.) 

However, with June rolling around I knew I couldn’t let a tiny thing like lack of a bbq prevent me from making my grilled favorites. Especially when I came up with the idea for these lamb burgers. So I broke out the grill pan. While the grill pan doesn’t produce an identical flavor to the bbq, I’ve got to say I’ve been pretty pleased with the results. So feel free to do these burgers up on the grill or inside. I’ve got to say you can’t go wrong. Lamb burgers are just awesome!

 Don’t you think lamb burgers are a magnificent summer alternative to the regular beef burger? Not that we don’t love our beef, but the lamb really shakes things up and elevated the classic burger into something a little bit special. 

This version of the lamb burger is a touch different then what you might find by googling for recipe ideas. Originally, I wanted to go the tried and true route using dill and lemon to produce a traditional gyros like flavor. I changed my mind, no not because of creative brilliance, but because I didn’t have any dill, or lemon juice. Yet, culinary genius was achieved none the less. I went for tarragon and thyme, and completely omitted lemon juice. It totally, totally, works. Tarragon and thyme are a perfect flavor combo for lamb. Accompanied by a super easy five minute tarragon tzatziki, arugula, tomato and a whole heap of feta cheese, these burgers rock. Enjoy!