Lentil Burgers!

I made these Wednesday…they were deeelicious. PW was a little skeptical before, as he is not a huge lentil fan (like I am!). But we put his on a roll with some ketchup like a real burger and he was good to go!

Main ingredients:

1 Bag lentils
Some veggies
Whole wheat bread crumbs
1 egg
olive oil
Seasoning (I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder)

First, rinse and boil your lentils. Never cooked lentils before? Put about 2.5-3 cups water for every cup of lentils. bring to a boil then simmer until lentils are soft and skins are splitting (30-45 minutes!)

Use a big pot, because the above picture is lentils before cooking, the picture below is them same amount when cooked!

While those are on the stove, toast about a cup of whole wheat bread crumbs:
(Here are before and after pictures! Try not to eat them all by hand once toasted, theyre sooo good!)

To get a little added nutrition (and flavor!), I also sauteed some veggies. Carrot, Red Pepper, Onion, and Broccoli. When they were soft, I put them in the food processor (for some reason I can never spell that word correctly? I always end up with that squiggly red spellcheck line underneath!).

Now, I took 3/4 cup of lentils, and put THEM in the food processor, to make some “glue” for the burgers (take the veggies out first!). To those lentils, I also added about 1Tblsp of Olive Oil and salt and pepper. Puree that!

Now, mix together in a bowl:

1-1.5 cups cooked lentils
the 3/4 cup pureed lentils
1 cup toasted bread crumbs
your cooked veggies
1 egg
Flavoring! Garlic powder? Chili powder? Cumin? Whatever flavor youre going for! Lentils are bland on their own, you have to add the seasoning!

Grab a handful, shape into a patty and put on a pan sprayed with some nonstick oil. Cook for 5-7 minutes each side.

If this happens to your first one, dont worry:

It just means the mix is too dry. Add a little water until it has more of a “paste” texture. Then they should look like this once cooked!

I paired ours up with zucchini sticks and sweet potato fries on the george foreman grill (microwave the sweet potato to get it soft first!)

I love sweet potatoes!

I ended up being able to make about 8 good size burgers out of that recipe! With a whole container of cooked lentils left over (for me to make 10 minute soup with!!!)

Another blog entry coming tonight with LIFE details including: beach time, massages, MacBook and iPhone 4 shopping! Check back in 🙂