Recipe: Ground Bison (Venison?) Patties with Cream Cheese

Ground bison? No, ground GRASS-FED bison. And I bought it at the Walmart in Marinette, Wisconsin. It comes in 1 pound packages like the grass-fed ground beef. Ground bison is leaner, though, and super-lean meat is not part of the Keto * Low-Carb way of life. So I concocted this recipe, based mainly on some old German meatball recipe I only half remember. But it turned out good. I would also try this recipe on ground venison if I had any (I have some frozen venison I might thaw and make into ground meat in my Vita-Mix) or ground turkey or ultra-lean ground beef or anything else that might bring your daily fat total too low.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground bison (or ground venison, or other ground meat) [0 grams carbs, 0 fiber, 0 net carbs]

4 oz. cream cheese (Philadelphia or similar) [4 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 4 g net carbs]

1 egg (I used a jumbo egg) {0.4 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0.4 g net carbs]

2 TBSP (tablespoon) ground flaxseed meal [4.04 g carbs, 3.8 g fiber, 0.24 g net carbs]

DIRECTIONS:

Put on disposable plastic gloves, and smoosh the ingredients around in a small bowl until mixed. Divide meat into four equal portions and form into patties. Cook the patties just as you normally cook hamburger patties, or put them into individual freezer bags to freeze them (I used 1 pint freezer bags.) These make nice-sized patties, if they come out too big for your tastes, divide the recipe into 5 portions. OPTIONAL: place 2 TBSP of home-made vinaigrette dressing in the bag and marinate for a few hours or overnight. I used the Italian Vinaigrette recipe from 500 Low-Carb recipes by Dana Carpender— it has garlic in it. Garlic is life!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Whole Recipe: 8.44 g carbs, 3.8g fiber, 4.64g net carbs

1/4 recipe— 1 patty: 2.11g carbs, 0.95g fiber, 1.16g net carbs

GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL INSTRUCTIONS

If your patties are frozen, thaw them overnight. Use the level (not slanted) setting and use the Baking Pan on the bottom and the Steak Plate on top. Spray with olive oil pan spray and set grill to Medium and preheat. When grill is heated, cook patty for 5 minutes. One instruction booklet I have for my grill gives Medium as the heat setting for burgers, the other instruction booklet FOR THE SAME GRILL says ‘High.’ Both say 3-5 minutes. Ground turkey, on the other hand, is 8-9 minutes on High. 

I had some grilled mushrooms in the fridge and set them on the grill with the meat patty to heat them— they came out maybe a bit overdone but I liked it okay as a burger topping. You may also add low-carb catsup and any other burger toppings you really like. DON’T eat it on a bun or bread, but with a knife and fork. (My flatbread recipe is too fragile to serve as a burger bun— maybe if you made them with 3 TBSP batter instead of 2? That would equal 1/4 cup, by the way.)

If you have a cheaper model of George Foreman grill or contact grill (cooks from both sides), use a tile or something to make the grill more level. If there are no replaceable plates, of course you can’t use the Baking Pan. If any significant amount of fat escapes into the Drip Tray (fat-catching tray), top the burger with it or part of it when cooking is done. 

If you have any comments or ideas about this recipe, please drop a comment. If you make this recipe, stop back here and tell me how it turned out. I love to hear from  blog readers! Well, not so much spam comments or mean trolls, (unless they are funny) but everyone else.