Buffalo Bacon Cheese Burger & Salad

Yesterday morning I realized it had been almost a year since I had a burger of any kind (minus veggie burgers). Steve and I found some buffalo (aka bison) when we were at Costco so we decided to spoil ourselves.  We heated up the grill, made the burgers and got the bacon out of the fridge.  While Steve was grilling the meat I threw together a spinach salad with cucumber, orange pepper, cherry tomatoes, sliced almonds, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  We had blackberry balsamic vinegar in the pantry which added a fruity flavor which I usually get from adding dried fruit like cranberries or golden raisins.  The sweet freshness of the salad was the perfect compliment to the meatiness of the burger.



For the burger we used a little over a pound of ground buffalo meat mixed with half a teaspoon each of salt, pepper, onion salt, and garlic salt.  We had our new smoker/grill heated to 350 degrees.

With a little american cheese and ketchup on top the burgers were perfect and exactly what I had waited a year for.  

We love using buffalo instead of ground beef because it is in general leaner and has a gamey flavor which ground beef has been lost at this point.  We were able to find organic buffalo at Costco but most grocery stores have it right next to the ground beef section. 

If you try making this burger or salad I hope it's as yummy a meal as it was for us!