Plant Based Vegan Lentil Burgers
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 60 minutes refrigeration
Cooking time: 45 minutes
For patties
- 1 cup dried green lentils, soaked over night and then boiled for 10 minutes in 3 cups of water and drained well
- Oil for frying
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 260g/9ozs. mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 cup almonds, roasted and finely processed
- 2 chia eggs* (or flax eggs or 2 eggs if you're vegetarian)
- 1 cup breadcrumbs, finely processed
- 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
- 3 teaspoons mustard
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt (I used chilli salt)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1-1.5 cups red lentil flour
For burgers
- 8 buns
- 8 slices vegan cheese
- Tomato sauce
- American yellow mustard
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 8 onion layers
- Butter lettuce
- Sliced pickles
- Garlic toum (see recipe here)
To make 1 chia egg, mix 1 tablespoon of chia seeds with 2-2.5 tablespoons water
Step 1 - Place the cooked lentils in a large bowl. Fry the carrots and onions together until caramelised and there isn't any liquid left. Add to the bowl of lentils. Fry the garlic and mushrooms together until cooked and there is no liquid remaining (too much liquid and the patties won't bind together properly).
Step 2 - Add the almonds, chia eggs, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, sugar, cumin, salt and black pepper. Mix well and then place in a food processor and blitz.
Step 3 - Place the mixture back in the bowl and refrigerate uncovered for 60 minutes. Add the lentil flour into the mixture. Shape into large balls and then flatten to fit your buns. Heat a frypan on high heat and add oil. Fry each patty for around 5 minutes on each side so 10 minutes in total. I cooked my patties ahead of time and then that afternoon I topped each patty with a slice of vegan cheese and put it in a 180C/350F oven for 5 minutes until the cheese melted.
Step 4 - For these burgers I use brioche buns which are obviously not vegan but use whichever buns you would like. On the bottom bun I add some tomato sauce or ketchup, American yellow mustard, butter lettuce, 2 slices tomato, red onion, the lentil patty with melted vegan cheese with sliced pickles on top and garlic toum on the top bun.