Sunday, July 13, 2008

Lentil Burgers

Here is my Lentil Burger Recipe:

1-2 cups lentils, soaked over night in water
1-2 medium starchy potatoes
1 small onion
salt- about 1-2 tsps.

The rest is optional play with it:
1 carrot
1 small zucchini or summer squash
1 chunk of pumpkin or some kind of squash
handful of greens
fresh herbs
Mushrooms
garlic
Small sweet potatoe
Green or red pepper (which I LOVE)
Any kind of spices or none at all, except salt

Puree in food processor until it is a fine, almost fluffy mush. Lightly oil the pan with coconut oil. Then pan fry in a cast iron skillet, or if you haven't yet ditched your non-stick pans go ahead if you must. Sometimes, if I don't feel like standing at the stove forever, I bake them on a pizza stone at 375 until the firm up. (although they aren't AS tasty this way, but work anyway). You can also lightly cook and freeze them to pop in the toaster oven later on. I sometimes use them as crumbles in "Veggie 'meat' sauce," for lasagna or pasta, or as soup thickener, either cooked, or as raw mush in the soup.
They are so versatile.
When made into "burgers" you can do all sorts of things:
Pizza burgers, add some italian seasoning, and top with pizza sauce and toppings, open-faced
Southwest burgers on tortillas or taco shells with taco seasoning in the mix
Add Worcestshire sauce to the mix and some rolled oats for more "Burger-like" burgers and dress it with the traditional condiments
Wrap it in Romaine leaves for bread-free burgers and top with carrot salad or asian slaw
Add beets to the mix, and a little pickle juice, and then sautee some mushrooms, top with saeurkraut and Mayo or home-made thousand island, put on rye bread, and it tastes like a mock reuben! Yum!
One time I even added "sausage seasoning" from Penzey's and served them with pancakes, syrup and eggs!

If you come up with a new version, let me know! My mother-in-law and I are always experimenting with this recipe!

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