A Delicous Lentil Burger Recipe With Rice And Spices
This lentil burger recipe uses green lentils but you could use any whole variety of lentils for this vegetarian burger.
In fact I have made these with all kinds of lentils but you may need to adjust the cooking time for the lentils if you a smaller variety like puy lentils. For the burgers, the lentils should be soft when cooked but not soggy.
Ingredients:
200g/8oz green lentils
100g/4oz rice, cooked
Sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 medium carrot, grated
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch of chilli powder
Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Freshly ground pepper
Maize meal or flour for coating.
Method:
1. Cover the lentils in about twice their volume of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer until cooked – about 20 minutes. There is no need to soak.
2. Gently fry the onion in a little oil until beginning to soften. Add the garlic and carrot and continue to fry until soft.
3. Stir in the cumin, coriander and chilli and cook for a minute.
4. Add the onion mixture and rice to the cooked lentils and roughly mash the mixture with a fork or potato masher.
5. Add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper to taste and allow to cool a little.
6. Shape the mixture into little lentil patties (you should get about 8) and roll them in maize meal or flour. I like to use maize meal as it has a lovely coarse texture and a wonderful golden colour.
7. Fry the burgers for a few minutes on each side until golden. You can keep the lentil burger warm in the oven if you are cooking them in batches. In fact, I like to finish them off in the oven anyway. I think it gives them a nice crisp coating.
8. For the barbeque, I like to pre-cook them and just warm them on some foil on the barbeque.
To serve:
I like these patties with some barbeque sauce or a yoghurt sauce like raita and some homemade potato roasties (or fries!) and salad. Or of course, all of your barbeque trimmings will work great too if that's how you are cooking the burgers.
Freezing:
I love the fact that these lentil burgers freeze so well. Once you've made a batch (and I usually make a big batch) you have all the convenience of a bought variety of frozen burgers but with all the goodness of something homemade.
You can freeze the burgers before frying or after. I personally find it handiest to freeze them after frying. Just leave the burgers until completely cold, and then freeze in bags or trays. When you want to use them, take out a lentil burger or two, leave to defrost, and then reheat in a hot oven for about 10 minutes.
