While health­i­er cooks tend to lim­it red meat, hap­pi­ly there is a place for lamb on the healthy plate.

While an­i­mal pro­teins bring sat­u­rat­ed fats to the ta­ble, on­ly about half of lamb's fat is sat­u­rat­ed. And lamb is full of pro­tein, which means even a few ounces of it can be fill­ing. A four-ounce raw por­tion has just about 200 calo­ries, which means it's easy to cel­e­brate spring with an evening of juicy, tasty lamb.

I love lamb that isn't gamey, so I tend to do one of two things. I ei­ther buy ten­der ba­by lamb racks, then sea­son them with gar­lic, mus­tard and herbs be­fore roast­ing them (de­li­cious, but pricey), or I buy less ex­pen­sive ground lamb and make pat­ties or burg­ers. And let me tell you, these burg­ers are amaz­ing.

To keep the lamb burg­ers ex­tra mild, I of­ten mix in an­oth­er va­ri­ety of ground meat, usu­al­ly turkey or lean beef. I add just enough to take the gamey edge off the lamb. The re­sult is a per­fect flavour that re­minds me of a French spring­time sup­per.

This lamb burg­er recipe screams spring with a dose of sea­son­al pep­pery wa­ter­cress (a healthy green!) and a creamy fresh mint and shal­lot sauce that is spooned on­to the still-siz­zling pat­ties when they are placed on the buns. Full of flavour and just a bit in­dul­gent, these lamb burg­ers are a cel­e­bra­tion in­deed.

LAMB BURG­ERS

WITH WA­TER­CRESS

AND CREAMY MINT SAUCE

3/4 lb ground lamb

1/2 lb 93 per cent lean ground beef

Kosher salt and ground black pep­per

Gar­lic pow­der

1/3 cup light may­on­naise

1/2 cup low-fat plain Greek yo­gurt

1/4 cup loose­ly packed fresh mint leaves, rough­ly chopped

1 small shal­lot, rough­ly chopped

1 tsp Worces­ter­shire sauce

4 burg­er buns, toast­ed

6-inch seg­ment of a cu­cum­ber, thin­ly sliced

1 large toma­to, sliced and salt­ed

2 cups wa­ter­cress

Method

�2 In a large bowl, gen­tly com­bine the lamb and ground beef un­til mixed. �2 Form the mix­ture in­to four pat­ties, then sea­son them with salt, pep­per and gar­lic pow­der.

�2 Heat a grill or large grill pan to medi­um-high.

�2 Light­ly oil the grill grates us­ing an oil-soaked pa­per tow­el held with tongs, or coat a grill pan with cook­ing spray.

�2 Add the burg­ers and cook for eight to ten min­utes (for medi­um), flip­ping them af­ter four min­utes.

�2 Mean­while, make the mint sauce. �2 In a blender, com­bine the may­on­naise, yo­gurt, mint, shal­lot and Worces­ter­shire sauce.

�2 Blend un­til creamy.

�2 To as­sem­ble the burg­ers, di­vide the cu­cum­ber slices be­tween the buns, then set a burg­er on top.

�2 Spoon two ta­ble­spoons of the mint sauce on­to each burg­er, then top with a toma­to slice and wa­ter­cress.

�2 Serv­ings 4. (AP)

�2 Food Net­work star Melis­sa d'Ara­bi­an is an ex­pert on healthy eat­ing on a bud­get. She is the au­thor of the cook­book, Su­per­mar­ket Healthy.http://www.melis­sadara­bi­an.net