For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 7 years. At the beginning, I was asked almost daily what I ate if I didn’t eat meat! The answer is – everything that you do…. except chicken, pork, turkey and beef.
And truthfully, I don’t miss it one. bit.
When I married a carnivore, I thought this might pose a problem! I have no problem cooking meat, but i thought it was kind of silly to cook two different dinners every night. Luckily, Matt enjoys all of my vegetarian cooking, and I try new recipes all the time!
One product i’m a huge fan of is lentils. Specifically, pre-cooked lentils from Trader Joe’s. They’re $2, rather than $1 for a bag, but soaking/cooking beans takes FOREVER and I just don’t have the patience, considering I’m usually making up dinner when i’m already starving. Totally worth the convenience.
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Anyway, i’ve found quite a few lentil recipes that I love. We joined a Winter CSA and have pounds and pounds of potatoes – regular and sweet. I’ll be sure to include some of these recipes, too, as i’m sure i’m not alone on the potato overload! We wanted to make home-made fries, and i thought that ‘burgers’ would go really well with them!
I made black bean burgers from scratch once before, and it was extremely time consuming because i was mashing them by hand. I’ve since invested in a little food processor and it has completely changed cooking for me.
These lentil burgers took almost no time and were delicious!
Lentil Burgers
prep: 10min cooking 10-20min
Makes 8-10
Ingredients:
1 pack Trader Joe’s Steamed Lentils (2.5 cups)
4 eggs
1/2 onion (you can add more or less if you like – but some is necessary for texture)
sea salt
garlic powder
cracked black pepper
1 cup oat flour (or alternatively, breadcrumbs)
1/4 cup grape seed oil (or other high heat oil)
1 – put lentils, a few shakes of salt, pepper, garlic, chopped onion and eggs in food processor. Blend until it’s the texture of chunky humus. You don’t need to make it perfectly smooth, you want it still a bit watery.
2 – pour into bowl, add oat flour/breadcrumbs and mix in. allow a couple of minutes for it to thicken. **remember, you want moisture. so if it looks a little dry, you can add another egg or 1/4 cup of water**
3 – while your mix is setting, put a large, flat pan on medium-low and add your oil.
4 – make patties (size of the rim of a coffee cup) and put in the oil. cover, and let sit for 7-8 minutes while it browns. flip to other side, brown for 7-8 minutes. allow a few extra minutes if necessary.
5 – remove from oil and allow to sit for a minute, but serve hot!
If you’re trying to sneak in extra veggies for your kids (or yourself!) you can saute some spinach and add to your food processed mess! You’ll never know it’s there, but the vitamins will sneak into your body 🙂
I was too hungry to take a photo of them all decked out with the fries (dang it!) but i served mine with spicy brown mustard, lettuce and tomato. YUM.
Does anyone else have a good veggie burger recipe to share?
xo