Live It Up with a Lamb Burger

Worth its weight in gold

After a harrowing week in the UK I’d like to take this opportunity to say: Nazi scum, off our streets. I feel much gratitude towards the anti-racist protestors around the country whose actions this week have made people feel less terrified today than they did on Tuesday.

Now to the frivolous matter of burgers. This week’s recipe is inspired by an old favourite I used to order from Grill’d, a Melbourne burger chain that still elicits cravings even though it’s 10,000 miles away and six years since I last tasted it. It was called Zorba the Sheep. This is so worth making at home, I hope you try it!

Lamb in a burger is a great thing. We accept and enjoy lamb kofte in flat bread and I’m here to make the case for the lamb patty in a bun. It’s a little bit grander, and with all the same deliciously juicy benefits. Lamb patties are naturally fatty and pair brilliantly with the saltiness of sheep or goats’ cheese, and the sweetness of onion and peppers here.

For the sake of us all, UK burger chains need to accept the lamb burger into their repertoires. Until they do, I’ve brought you my best recreation of the Grill’d Zorba the Sheep. Grill’d Healthy Burgers is an Australian burger chain that first opened 20 years ago in Hawthorn, the first Melbourne suburb I moved to. They sold burgers with egg and beetroot, or avocado and pineapple as toppings and their chips came with a herb salt before Honest Burgers was a blink in its CEO’s eye. And even though now you might see their burger menu and think, ‘hmm, nothing to see here’, I can only imagine that back in 2004, they were truly burger pioneers. I get the sense that Grill’d is to Melbourne what Nando’s is to London: held dear in its citizen hearts for its reliability, ubiquity and for the part it played in our formative years.