Gourmet Burgers with Avocado, Pecorino and caramelized Onions

When I did an internship in Cologne during the semester break, I was lucky enough to not have to explore another jungle of the real estate market, as my sister was so kind as to invite me to stay at her place. 

We had a great time, and one of the things we discovered - or rather I did, seeing as my sister was already in on the new hype - was the crazy burger obsession in the media capital of Germany. New burger places have sprouted everywhere in this city, making it even seem as though the more 'traditional' ones are being replaced.
They follow a completely different concept to your typical fastfood chain. Of course, the burgers are still composed of the same ingredients, the meat is still probably exactly as greasy, and tomatoes, salad and fries are also still part of the game. But these burgers are on a completely different level of taste when compared to their relatives present in almost every corner of every country. These new burgers upgrade burger-eating from a mere quick meal to a real meal with a delicious twist; our favourites include 'Burger Brothers' , using fantastic meat, 'Hans im Glück' with the most inventive toppings and 'Die Fette Kuh', which is simply worth a visit!

So after all this burger-hopping, we thought it was about time to take a shot at it ourselves. We wanted to make something with avocado and arugula, but it did take us a while to figure out that a spicy pecorino would probably be the perfect cheese to round it all off. The caramelizing of the onions and the avocado salsa replace mustard and ketchup, adding a nice twist to the whole experiment. 
The amounts in this recipe make enough for two VERY hungry burger lovers or four not-so-hungry ones. Like with any of those other great messy and variable foods, you can of course change all the amounts of toppings, or maybe even add some of your own! For the burger bread we used a crunchy large ciabatta, burger bread grilled on the BBQ is also a great alternatve though!


Ingredients:

For the meat:
-500g ground meat
-1 egg
-paprika spice
-2 tbsp. bread crumbs

For the topping:
-1 bunch arugula, washed and dried
-6 medium-sized tomatoes, cut in thin slices
-1 very ripe avocado
-2 tbsp. natural joghurt
-2 tbsp. cream cheese
-juice from 1/2 lemon
-60g pecorino cheese, grated
-5 red onions
-2 tbsp. olive oil
-3 tbsp. balsamico vinegar
-3 tsp. sugar

-1 large ciabatta bread or burger bread

-salt & pepper

Instructions:
1. For the burger meat, mix meat with the other ingredients, preferably using your hands. Add salt & pepper. Form into 10 equally sized small balls and flatten in the surface of your hand. Make sure that all burgers have the same thickness so that they cook evenly. 
2. Heat a pan to medium hot and cook burger meat from both sides until through. Remove from pan and cover to keep hot.
3. For the avocado cream, blend avocado with joghurt, cream cheese and lemon. Spice with salt.
4. Glaze onions with vinegar in olive oil and add sugar when they are already a light brown.  
5.  Cut bread into cubes. Top with avocado cream, meat, onions, tomatoes, arugula and cheese.
Enjoy!