Greek Lamb and Olive Burgers with Garlic

If you'd like the sauce to be thick, strain the yogurt through cheesecloth for 30 minutes and discard the liquid before adding the garlic, or use a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl or a cup.

With your hands or a wooden spoon, mix the lamb, olives, bread crumbs, onion, scallions, salt, pepper, oregano and feta until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Shape the meat mixture into four 1/2 inch thick patties.

Preheat a grill or grill pan. Grill the meat patties over medium-hot coals or pan-grill over medium-high heat for 5 minutes per side. The burgers should no longer be pink in the center.

While the burgers cook, stir together the yogurt and garlic.

Place each burger on the bottom of a roll, spoon on a little garlic sauce, and top with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion, if desired. Cover with the top half of the roll and serve.

Cat's Note:

I keep panko bread crumbs in my pantry. Panko are Japanese bread crumbs made from the soft center of a bread loaf and look more like flakes than the softer, rounder homemade bread crumbs. Whether you use panko or ordinary dried bread crumbs, they help keep burgers and meatloaf moist and tender.