These “burgers” are chock full of lentils and chickpeas, and they’re baked, making them super healthy. When making vegetarian burgers, I skip the bun entirely – otherwise it quickly becomes too stodgy to eat. Adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking. If you don’t already, you must follow her blog, 101 cookbooks!
Lentil & Chickpea “Burgers”
1 cup puy lentils, cooked
1 cup chickpeas, cooked
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled
3-4 green chillies, sliced (remove the seeds if you prefer)
Salt to taste
Oil to grease baking pan or to shallow fry
Chopped vegetables: I used 1 cup of onions and capsicum
Combine cooked puy lentils, chickpeas, garlic, green chillies and coriander in a bowl. Salt to taste and blend with a hand blender to form a chunky paste. I ended up leaving some chickpeas and lentils whole.. I think it looks better that way.
Add any mix-ins. I added onions and capsicum since I had them to hand (and partly because the latter looked like it wouldn’t make it till the end of the week).
Add an egg or two to bind. Combine with breadcrumbs. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to soak the moisture. Coat with some more breadcrumbs, and you’re good to go.
I usually pan fry these with a little bit of oil. This time I tried grilling them in an oven (200 deg C). It ended up taking about 40-45 minutes to get them cooked. Grilling in an oven gets them crisp, but takes a while. I served these with watercress and a simple avocado and mango salsa!
Prep time: 15 min; Cook time: 40-45 min. Adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking.
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