These Paleo lamb burgers are perfectly seasoned and topped with dairy free tzatziki made with coconut cream. Serve wrapped in greens or with Greek salad for a healthy flavor packed Paleo and Whole30 friendly meal!
I will just come right out and say it – I’ve been creating/posting a whole lot of desserts and baking recipes and neglecting the 3 meals lately.
I won’t blame it on any one thing, but rather a mix of a.) boredom with my own meals and lack of creativity b.) it’s fall and I’m a sucker for apple and pumpkin goodies, and c.) Baked goods are much easier to get pretty photos of – just being real here!
BUT, if there’s one thing I actually NEVER get tired of, it’s burgers. BURGERS OF ALL KINDS ROCK MY WORLD! Yup I’m screaming on rooftops about burgers. In fact, this whole “Paleo” thing might just be the biggest excuse of a lifetime to eat burgers every single day. Deep stuff, man! But really, I DO eat a burger of some sort every single day…
Which is why I figured it was high time to try something new and different! I’m no stranger to lamb – living in the NYC boroughs and suburbs my whole life, every diner on every corner was Greek owned so I sort of thought Greek food was the norm by age 5.
No joke – I had 2 favorite foods at 5 year old and they were burgers and spinach pie – diner versions of course. And I STILL haven’t made a Paleo spinach pie! But I digress…
So, that covers the inspiration perhaps, now let’s go into the “why” and “how” with the tzatziki. I decided to experiment with a coconut cream base for this sauce since I cook with it often, and, it came out better than I imagined. You don’t taste coconut AT ALL! My kids even liked it, probably because of all the garlic and “dill pickle” taste – but whatever, it worked!
If you have your own homemade coconut yogurt, I think that would be a fabulous base if you play around with the lemon juice measurement a bit. Another note for low FODMAP eaters – while this recipe is not at all low FODMAP due to the garlic in the tzatziki, you could experiment replacing the garlic with garlic chives. I haven’t tried this yet, but would love to hear from any of you who do!
As I mention in the recipe printout, I highly recommend making the tzatziki at least a few hours before serving, or the day before. I kept mine refrigerated in a lidded jar for 4 days after making this recipe and it just tasted better and better! Hope you enjoy these Paleo lamb burgers as much as we did 🙂
Paleo Lamb Burgers with Dairy Free Tzatziki {Whole30}
Paleo Lamb Burgers with Dairy Free Tzatziki {Whole30}
Ingredients
For the Burgers:
- 1 lb grass-fed ground lamb*
- 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions scallions or red onion if preferred
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano or about 1 tbsp chopped fresh
- 1 tbsp fresh mint finely chopped
- Pinch crushed red pepper generous if you like spice
- Fine grain sea salt
- 1 tbsp water
- tsp olive oil to grease pan
For the Tzatziki
- 1 can full fat coconut milk chilled and all but 1 tbsp of the liquid part discarded**
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 med cucumber peeled seeded, roughly chopped (this will be processed so size of the chop isn't important)
- 2.5 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt or to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
-
***I recommend making the Tzatziki at least 2 hours before serving to allow flavors to blend and coconut cream to thicken. You can also make it the day before and store tightly covered in the refrigerator.
Make the Tzatziki:
-
Put the garlic, cucumber, and lemon juice in a high speed blender or food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add in the coconut cream, dill, salt, and pepper and blend until combined. The sauce won't be smooth.
-
Once blended, taste to see if you need to add salt or pepper. Transfer to a lidded jar and store in the fridge until time to serve. The flavors will intensify over time as it chills in the refrigerator.
For the Burgers:
-
In a mixing bowl, gently combine the ground lamb with the scallions OR red onion, dill, oregano, mint, red pepper and water. Sprinkle the mixture with fine grain sea salt, then form into 4 equal sized patties. Don't work the meat too much - just handle enough to form the patties.
-
Heat a large cast iron skillet over med-hi heat and brush with a small amount of olive oil. Sprinkle the skillet lightly with more fine grain sea salt.
-
Place the patties in the skillet and cook on each side about 4 minutes - adjusting the heat in necessary to prevent the outside from browning too much. Alternatively, you can grill the burgers or broil them.
-
Remove from skillet and serve over greens, Greek salad (I love kalamata olives with this!) and top with tzatziki sauce. You can also serve it on the side for dipping if preferred. Garnish with more fresh herbs if you like - enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*My favorite grass-fed ground lamb is from U.S. Wellness Meats
**You can always save the remaining liquid for another recipe, a smoothie, etc. The remaining solid and small amount of liquid will be referred to in the recipe as "coconut cream"
What I Used to Make My Paleo Lamb Burgers and Dairy Free Tzatziki
Want more easy Paleo & Whole30 dinner ideas? Try one of these!
Pan Fried Italian Style Meatballs
Roasted Carrot, Beef and Bacon Skillet
Sweet Potato Chorizo Chili with Bacon
Easy Taco Salad with Plantain Chips
Are you a fan of Greek food?
What was your favorite food at age 5 or 6?
What’s one part of Paleo eating that feels like a huge indulgence?
Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Paleo Running Momma!
I used my cast iron skillet to make burgers last night because it was raining and we didn’t want to grill, and our Foreman suddenly broke. Burgers are so easy to make but can definitely get boring, so its always good to keep things interesting with recipes like this!
I really do love the cast iron for burgers when grilling season is done 🙂
My mom had a lamb burger with tzatziki on Saturday night! It also had a great blueberry something underneath–absolutely delish.
Ooh that sounds interesting and delicious!
I’m not a meat eater, but I do love some good lamb every now and then!
It’s yummy!
I LOVE Greek food and can not wait to make this. I’ve been playing around with a paleo version of avgolemono soup using zucchini noodles instead of rice or orzo. Please keep the savory recipes coming – I look forward to them.
It’s definitely harder to vary the savory meals without being repetitive but I’m up for the challenge and would love some new go-to’s myself!
I made these burgers as part of my January Whole30 and the family really liked them. I was especially happy to find a dairy-free tzatziki sauce … this may become a stock item in our fridge!
It’s amazing when you realize how much you can do with coconut milk! Happy you guys liked them!
How long does the prepared taziki stay?
We made these last night and they were awesome but we have a ton of leftover sauce and I don’t want to throw it out. Any suggestions for other easy ways that we could use it for other meals? We thought about shredding chicken and using it as a “mayo” substitute to make a chicken salad. Any feedback or ideas would be great! thanks!
I like this sauce with so many things, you can use it for veggies or pretty much any meat and I think it tastes great! Or even a dip for baked fries 🙂
can we freeze the burgers raw or cooked? Pretty please…
You can probably freeze both ways with success. If I’m making patties I usually freeze them uncooked and then defrost in the fridge prior to cooking. You can also cook them and freeze although I don’t think they’d wind up as tasty.
i made a lamb burger once before, like a burger, it was awful! so i gave it another try tonight with this recipe, what a world of difference! it was soooo good. i will definately make again AND use other recipes in her collection. I have to change my diet for inflametion and this one worked great! thank you!!
Hii my suace was more thin than thick ? Did I not let the can of coconut milk chill long enough ?
Perhaps, OR it could be the brand – some brands are thinner than others. For a nice thick sauce, use just the “cream” (thick) part after chilling, or buy coconut cream separately.
Love this! Lamb burgers are delicious!
Outstanding! Delicious!!
So good!
Excellent meal! I substituted allspice for the oregano and the meal turned out amazing. The tzatziki sauce is sooo good. I will be making this meal more often!