Karen Wright: Delicious lamb and feta burgers ... ideal to cook on the barbecue

Burgers are arguably America’s most popular fast food. In the early 1900s many people from Germany migrated to America. With the German people came German food, including a Hamburg-style chopped beef steak. The hamburger was born!

Burgers are easy to make from scratch and, when you make food at home, you are in control of the ingredients so everything can be tweaked to suit your taste.

Burgers can be made with beef, lamb, pork, vegetarian or vegan ingredients. So, something for everyone!

My recipe here uses lamb and feta. Lamb is quite a fatty meat but so delicious. Providing it is grilled or cooked on a barbecue, most of the fat is lost during cooking.

If you choose to use a meat with a lower fat content, you might need to add a slice of bread that has been moistened with milk or water to the mix, helping keep the burger from being tough.

This recipe made four large burgers ...

475g of lamb mince, two tablespoons of grated red onion, half teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of ground cumin, one tablespoon tomato puree, handful of finely chopped mint, salt and pepper and four one-inch cubes of feta cheese.

Put all the ingredients, except the cheese. in a large bowl and squish it all together using your hands. Then take a large round pastry cutter and place it on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

Half-fill the ring with mixture and crumble a cube of feta over the meat. Cover with more mixture to the top of the cutter. Carefully remove the cutter. Make a further three burgers the same way, then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Grill or barbecue for about 20 minutes, turning carefully once or twice.

A squeeze of lemon just after cooking adds more zing and then just serve in your bread bun with some salad.

This Saturday it is my Uncle Graham's 90th birthday and we are having a garden party at his house, fingers crossed for a dry forecast. The whole family are looking forward to this, as we, like everyone, missed a gathering last Christmas. Bring on the turkey!

For more tips and recipes go to http://www.karenwrightbakes.co.uk