Lentil Burgers

Home made burgers and patties are very simple and often much more nutritious and tastier than store-bought ones. They are also cheaper, of course. You can turn most leftover vegetables or legumes into burgers, just by adding your favourite spices and binding it with any kind of flour you have in your cupboard. For gluten free burgers you can use tapioca starch, potato starch, chickpea flour, bean flour, sorghum, rice flour, quinoa flakes, etc. For a more "seitan-like" texture, bind your burgers with gluten flour. Burgers made with gluten will be more suitable to use on the barbecue without breaking apart.

Lentil burger with avocado, fried champignons, carrot-chilli-mayo, fresh cilantro, served with sweet potato fries

Ingredients:

2 cups brown lentils (or chickpeas/beans) - I cooked them with a bay leaf and ground coriander

1/2 cup oat flakes

1 medium mashed potato 

2 tbsp chickpea flour 

1 ts smoked paprika powder

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 ts curry powder or herbs de provence, or your favourite spice mix (I used a blend of rosemary, sage, marjoram, and thyme, which I turn into powder in my coffee grinder)

1 ts lemon zest (with the help of a microplane)

Salt & chilli pepper to taste

Optional flavour-enhancers: 1/3 ts ground fennel, 1 tbsp tamari, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, fresh herbs (rosemary, basil, cilantro, thyme...)

Mash the lentils (or chickpeas or beans) and potatoes with a fork until all ingredients are all still “chunky”. Add the other ingredients and make sure it is all well combined. Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes. Knead the burgers with wet hands and leave them some minutes in the fridge (ideally they are made one day in advance, left in the refrigerator for the best texture and result). Fry (both sides) with a little oil in a pan over medium-high heat. 

I served mine with carrot-chilli-mayo, avocado slices, baked champignons, corn (from a jar), lettuce (with balsamic vinaigrette), tomato slices and crunchy chips/crisps. For the recipe in this picture I also used fresh cilantro leaves, but it works pretty much with other fresh herbs. 

For the carrot-chilli-mayo

Finely grated carrots (or carrot pulp from your juicer) + veganaise + chilli pepper + Greek oregano

You can also use avocado mayo instead of veganaise (blend avocado with mustard, salt, lemon juice and water until desired consistency). Cashew cream also works fine here. 

I make the carrots very creamy, soaking in the mayo and it works perfectly to add the needed moist to the burger.  Like that there is no need to add extra sauces and have them dripping along your cheeks and arms.  ;-)