Lentil burgers are easy to make and are not only tasty but also very healthy. If you are vegetarian, or if you have vegetarian friends, give these delicious lentil burgers a try.
Ingredients:half a kilo of lentils, 300g of old bread, 2-3 eggs, 3-4 onions, 2-3 pieces of garlic, a handful of chopped nuts, salt and pepper, tomato purée or ketchup (or some of my tasty tomato sauce), soy sauce, half a teaspoonful of cumin.
Rinse the lentils a few times to get rid of any dust and pick out any small stones. To save on your gas bill, soak the lentils for a few hours before you cook them. Then boil the lentils until they are soft. Drain them well.Crack a few nuts. It doesn’t really matter what kind you use, those of you that have a walnut tree in your garden as I do, why not use your own nuts? [insert your own joke here].About four onions should be enough. Peel them and chop them finely. Fry them in a little oil. Tip when you are chopping onions, run them under the tap before chopping them up. This will reduce the amount of onion spray that flies out and makes you cry.Break up the bread into small pieces. I used an attachment on my magic chopper (insert another joke here) and chopped my nuts (That’s enough ‘chopper and nuts’ jokes) and bread together.Add some tomato purée, or ketchup or some of my tomato sauce, some soya sauce, a teaspoonful of cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Mash your lentil burger mix with a fork until it is fairly homogenous. The lentil burger mixture should be sticky enough that you can make balls with it, but not too sloppy. If the mixture is too sloppy, add some more bread. If it is too dry, add some more tomato sauce or another egg.
Here is the lentil burger mixture half way through mashing. Once ready, put the whole mixing bowl in the fridge for about 3 hours (or more). The colder it is, the easier it is to form the burgers.Prepare some plates with flour. Scoop out a burger-sized ball of the cooled lentil burger mixture, toss it from hand to hand, then roll it in flour or dried breadcrumbs. Prepare as many burgers as you want. The mixture will keep in the fridge for a couple of days but as it contains fresh eggs, best not to leave it for too long.Fry the burgers in hot oil for a few minutes, turning once. They should turn a wonderful golden brown colour. Serve with rice, chips, pasta, bread, in fact almost anything goes with lentil burgers. They can be eaten hot or cold and freeze well. If they happen to break while frying, simply throw the bits into a tasty risotto.
