How to recreate your Oakland favorites at home: Hello Bistro burger

I am notorious for eating off campus during the semester, mostly because I really hate dining hall food. Now that it’s the summer and I’ve moved into my own apartment, I’ve decided that I should probably try to be financially responsible and cook more at home than ordering takeout all the time. I’m also pretty bad at cooking, and have been known to burn pots of water I was trying to cook.

I knew that the best way to make my tummy and wallet happy would be to try to recreate my favorite meals from places in Oakland. I started with a Pittsburgh favorite, the Hello Bistro burger. I have IBS, and part of that means that I can’t eat red meat without getting seriously sick, so I always get a turkey or veggie burger instead. This recipe should work well with any type of burger, but I used a turkey burger.

The specific burger I decided to make is the Mean Green Avocado Burger, which costs $6.75 before tax. The burger is described as, “Burger + Brioche Bun + Red Onion + Sliced Avocado + Swiss Cheese x Hello Bistro Secret Sauce = Contrary to Popular Opinion, It Is Easy Being Green.”

Sounds easy enough, I figured, and when I was grocery shopping with my roommates, I picked up Jennie O Turkey Burgers, a regular onion (not red, they were more expensive), sharp cheddar cheese (I needed it for another recipe and decided to make my food multi-task), avocados, and wheat bagels (I couldn’t find brioche buns, and they didn’t have any wheat buns, so I made due with the bagels I was getting for breakfast this week).

Frying the burger wasn’t too hard to do, even for as bad of a chef as I am. The hardest part was being patient and letting the burger do it’s own thing. I cooked it with a little bit of olive oil, and melted some of the cheddar on top. I also made sure to flip it occasionally, and put some garlic salt on top for a little bit of seasoning.

While the burger was cooking, I attempted to slice up the onion and avocado. I also decided to make a side salad and pierogis, and so when the burger was almost done, I threw the pierogis in the pan to cook with them.

I decided to toast my bagel, but I waited too long to do that and the burger and pierogis were done before the bagel was. I put everything together, and then realized I had no idea what the Hello Bistro special sauce was, so I just used some of my roommate’s spicy mustard.

All in all, it probably took about 20 minutes, and the cleanup was super easy! I only used one pan, a spatula, and the stuff to chop up veggies. I’ve since made this same recipe multiple times, and the most recent time I made my own guac-esque spread to put on the burgers.

To do this, you mix up an avocado, diced onion, and chopped spinach until it’s decently smooth. Then, add shredded cheese, paprika, and garlic salt for taste. It’s delicious on burgers, and you can use it to stuff chicken as well.

Tweet at me @becca_tasker and let me know what other takeout meals you want me to attempt to cook – I love turkey burgers, but after a week of eating them, I’m a little bored.