Craving: Turkey Patty Melt

Lately, I've been into traditional American comfort foods, like meatloaf and the like. Last week, I was craving a patty melt like you would not believe. I had to have a patty melt.  I couldn't shake the craving, so after a couple days, I finally decided to make a "healthier" version. I put that in quotes because it's not totally slimmed down, but it's better -- and damn tasty!  A friend from Twitter sent me this link to this recipe for Open Face Turkey Patty Melts, which was a great jumping off point, but I made a few changes and thought I'd share my version here.

Ingredients:

• 1  teaspoon olive oil
• Cooking Spray or olive oil in a mister
• 1  cup  vertically sliced Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 1/4  cup  part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2  teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2  teaspoon black pepper
• 1  pound ground turkey breast
• 1  large egg white or 2 tablespoons of liquid egg whites
• 4  (1-ounce) slices reduced-fat Swiss cheese
• 2 wedges The Laughing Cow Original Light Swiss
• 4  slices whole wheat sourdough bread
• 1/4 cup Deli-style brown mustard

This recipe makes 4 burgers. I actually halved it, made two burgers and used the rest of the turkey mixture for some great burritos I'll post later.

First, heat your skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil. If it's not quite enough to coat the pan, do a quick spray with cooking spray or misted olive oil, just to ensure it doesn't stick.

I included all of the above ingredients with the turkey, plus the mustard, which I forgot to get in the shot. Naturally.  Mix all that together, but not too much so that it's mush.  Note: 1 large egg white, not one large egg -- so if you're using liquid egg whites, be sure to do only 2 tablespoons instead of 3 or it'll be too sloppy. I learned this the hard way. Set aside.

While those flavors are melding, throw your sliced onions into the skillet and let them sit over medium heat without futzing with them while you make your patties. This allows them to get a nice carmelization on them. Too much moving them around tends to sweat them instead of browning them, which will release too much liquid in the pan.  Once you're done making your patties, brown the onions to your liking. When finished, put them in a bowl and set aside, putting the same skillet back on the stove.

The original recipe says to broil the bread, but I didn't see a point in heating up the entire oven just to broil a couple pieces of bread.  And instead of using one piece of bread open-face, I used one piece of bread cut in half so it could be like a regular sandwich. Add nothing to the bread and put each half in the skillet with your olive oil/onion remnants. Heat until browned on both sides, but don't let it get soggy. 

Cook your patty. I did about 4-5 minutes on one side and then flipped it and did another minute or two on the other.  Note how much oil there is in the pan above -- this is because I accidentally grabbed regular ground turkey instead of extra lean, like I usually do. So it did release some unexpected liquid and fat -- I'd recommend going extra lean and I will in the future.  The ricotta added to the extra lean turkey will keep it moist.

Now here's where I got a little cheesetastic. I really wanted a decadent experience, so I spread half a wedge of The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss on my "toasted" bread while my light swiss cheese was melting on my patty. 

Once my cheese had melted, I added the patty to the bread, dumped on some onions and I had myself a healthier patty melt, though I think trimming down the turkey with extra lean next time will save some unnecessary oil. I served it alongside some Ore-Ida Steak Fries baked in the oven. I wanted sweet potato fries, but my local grocer didn't have them. (I piled up more than a serving for this photo. Nine of these steak fries used to be 2 Points -- so you can bet I used to pick out the biggest and nicest ones -- but now 7 fries are 3 Points according to PointsPlus.)  Serving this with a green salad with light ranch would probably be better -- but I wanted the diner experience.

My calculations on this (minus the fries) put the Patty Melt at 10 Points per burger, but the individual components of each burger only equal 7 Points.  I'm not sure how that works, but that's what the PointsPlus tracker told me when I entered the recipe. Not super low, but nothing seems to be as low as before with PointsPlus besides fruit n' veg.  Since we've got more Points to play with now, this seems a reasonable choice if you're looking for that comfort food/diner style experience without the big fat diner style thighs.

Nom!

Please note Points totals are estimates -- product differences may cause Points to vary. Points and PointsPlus are trademarks of Weight Watchers International, with which we have no official affiliation.