When a reader named Quinn suggested a recipe that used both lentils and meat, I started thinking about how veggie burgers and beef burgers each have their own strengths. Why not combine the two ideas to create a burger with meaty flavor but the lean protein and low cost of lentils?
The haunting scent of allspice balanced with bright lemon juice and flecks of nuts make these Middle Eastern kofta (meat patties) hard to resist. This recipe is Sally’s savior as she lives with a major carnivore (exactly the opposite of how she likes to eat). She uses 80% to 85% ground chuck, but because there is so much flavor here, you can use leaner meat and still have no fear of cooking them to well done as recommended. Serve them with simple brown jasmine rice or the Golden Rice Salad, and a spoonful of Cucumber Yogurt Salad.
Ragù di carne (bolognese)
(Bolognese meat sauce)
I love kebabs, which is why I can't help making them at any backyard party. These kebabs utilize the same combination of herbs that I add to many of my dishes: mint, parsley and cilantro. Here, the addition of grated onion keeps the meat moist. Even a well-fed sheikh would be proud of this dish!
This recipe was one of the five meals my mom had in her heavy weeknight rotation to feed our family of six.
Lynne's burger-obsessed friend Les Meltzer has waxed on forever about his pinnacle burger experience from years ago in Minot, North Dakota. There, a certain bar would practically burn their burgers on the grill to get them extra crusty and brown, then drop them into a vat of simmering BBQ sauce to finish.
This meat loaf started life as a meatball recipe in the Times.
I love these things, caught in the interspecies synapse between hamburgers and meat loaf.