Tuna Burgers in Teriyaki Sauce

This is a super healthy and at the same time amazingly delicious burger. These tuna burgers are incredibly good and not all that complicated to make.
Although fresh tuna steaks are not always very easy to find and definitely not the cheapest fish there is, it is definitely worth it. If you cannot find fresh tuna steaks, you can also use frozen ones. After all, you are not eating them raw, so it does not need to be absolute top quality and fresh out of the sea kinda tuna. (As long as it isn’t canned tuna!) And yes, you can also use another type of fish for this, salmon for example.

Do not get discouraged by the long list of ingredients, it really isn’t all that complicated.

U need (4 burgers)

The burgers:

400 grams of tuna steaks (or salmon)

2 shallots

1 clove of garlic

1 spoon of Dijon mustard

A piece of fresh ginger root (about 1 cm, peeled)

A handful of fresh coriander

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Burger buns (or other kind of bread)

The teriyaki sauce:

60 ml of light soya sauce

3 spoons of honey or brown sugar

A piece of fresh ginger root (about 2 cm, peeled and finely grated)

1 small spoon of rice vinegar

Salad:

2 spoons of lime juice

A green chili pepper (seeds removed, or not...)

1 spoon of caster sugar

1 spoon of light soya sauce

1 spoon of fresh coriander

Olive oil or sesame oil

12 slices of marinated ginger

2 spring onions

A mix of salads

How to make it

It is really useful to have a blender for this one, because everything needs to be really finely chopped and a blender will save you a lot of time.

Start with the burgers:

Throw the shallots, garlic, mustard, ginger, coriander, some salt and pepper and some olive oil into a blender. Blend it until everything looks “finely chopped”. Cut the tuna up in pieces and add it to the blender and blend it until everything is mixed well and looks like a paste (it does not have to be perfectly smooth paste, some chunks of tuna here and there are allowed). Put everything in a bowl, cover with foil and put it in the fridge for about an hour (this will make it easier to make the actual burgers). If you do not have an hour, put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

The teriyaki glaze:

Take a small pan and heat up the soya sauce on a very small flame. Add the honey (or sugar), the grated ginger root and the rice vinegar and start stirring. Continue stirring until the sugar has melted and the sauce starts reducing. When the sauce starts becoming thicker, turn off the heat and let it cool.

The salad:

Here you are going to have to use the blender again (or chop everything up). Blend the lime juice, chili pepper, caster sugar, soya sauce, coriander and some olive (or sesame) oil until you have a nice dressing. Pour everything into a bowl, add the ginger slices and mix everything. Put it away in the fridge.

Mix this dressing with the salad and the chopped up spring onion just before serving.

Back to the burgers:

Take the tuna paste out of the fridge and divide it into four equal parts. If it sticks too much, you can wet your hands a bit. Form four flat and round burgers. Heat up some oil (not too much, because there is already some in the burgers) in a frying pan and fry them for about 2-3 minutes (medium flame) on each side, while pouring the teriyaki sauce over them with a spoon.

Use any bread you like for this. I like these burgers the most with ciabatta or focaccia bread. Of course you can also use regular burger buns. The salad can go in the burgers or on the side. The way you serve this is entirely up to you – use your imagination!