It’s a new week, and therefore, time for a new buffalo dish! I got some organic, grass-fed ground bison from Costco, and I had some spinach and mushrooms on hand already. I sought out a recipe that would let me incorporate those—and I landed on Nom Nom Paleo’s Green Sliders.

These sort of reminded me of a lentil burger that I used to make back in my vegetarian days, only with meat instead of lentils and a swap-out of the normal spices. The only thing missing was carrots, so I added some in. And then I took a bunch of stuff out. I decided I wanted to use my mushrooms as a side dish instead of hiding them in the meat. And in the end, I had something altogether different.

I added the “Florentine” to sound fancy. It pretty much gets tagged onto the name of any dish that uses spinach, so it works.

Disclaimer: It’s very much not like me to measure things as I cook, but I’m going to try. Oh, and I’ll remind you that, although I love paleo recipes for their gluten-free ways, I am not following a paleo diet. Therefore, this is not a paleo recipe. It has cheese, which I love too much to ever give up. And mayo.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground bison
• ¼ of the super large red onions (or 1 small red onion), chopped
• 1 lb. fresh spinach, chopped
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 tsp red pepper paste
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 3 T Parmesan cheese
• 2 T gluten-free bread crumbs
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste

Instructions:

1. Chop, mince, and shred your veggies.
2. Drizzle a little olive oil in a cold sauté pan, add the onions, and cook over medium heat. After the onions start to soften, add in the carrots, garlic, and red pepper paste.
3. When the garlic starts to brown and the carrots get soft, toss in the spinach and cook it until it’s all wilted, then remove it from the heat. Let it cool down—you’re going to be touching it soon!
4. Dump the bison in a bowl, along with the veggies, spices, eggs, and flour. Mix it all together with your hands, and then form little patties about 2½ inches across.
5. Heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan, and cook the patties over medium heat until they’re done. They should take about 4-5 minutes on each side. OR put them in a 375 degree oven for 8 minutes on each side. We preferred the texture of the baked sliders; I’d recommend using less bread crumbs if you prefer top-of-the-stove.

I served these with a little pesto mayo that I whipped up by mixing some store-bought pesto and mayo roughly 1 part pesto to 2 parts mayo. For the mushrooms on the side, I (sort of) used the Paleo Sautéed Balsamic Mushrooms recipe over at Paleo Cupboard. My version is very stripped down: sauté the garlic and mushrooms in olive oil until they’re soft, then splash some good vinegar (not much) in the pan and toss it with parsley.

These were a big hit at our table, and we’ll be making them for the grill when it warms up again. Enjoy!