Lentil burgers—who knew these could be so good. It’s funny last time I made these I asked my son, “So do you like these?” His response was “Yes, but don’t tell anyone.” I think he is afraid he will lose his man card for trading his beef for lintels and his bun for pita bread.
I used all organic ingredients for this meal. The cost of the meal will vary based on which extra ingredients you add. We spent about $12 on this meal for my family of four. That’s only $3.00 per person.
Our only problem with this meal is that I need to find a different kind of pita bread. The pitas we had just feel apart because they were a little too thin.
I deviated from the original recipe by cutting out a lot of the salt and skipping the paprika. I just did not see a reason for cooking the lentils in salt and then adding even more salt to the mixture once cooked.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup red lentils
- 1 scallion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 medium grated carrot
- Olive Oil
- Sea salt (to taste)
- ½ of an 8-inch pits toasted and cooled
- Juice from ½ of a lime
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Optional Ingredients
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Black olives
- Avocado
Directions
- Bring about 3 quarts of water to a boil and add lentils. Cook for 12 minutes. Lentils should be soft and beginning to fall apart. Drain in a strainer shake and stir the lentils in order to remove as much water as possible. Set aside for later use.
- In a small sauce pan and 1 table spoon of Olive Oil sauté the scallion, garlic, and carrot. Do this over low heat for about 8 minutes. The vegetables should be soft.
- Transfer the lentils and vegetables into a mixing bowl. Using a large spoon thoroughly mix the lentils and cooked vegetables together.
- Toast ½ of an 8 inch pita. Let the pita cool and then tear it into bits. In a food processes reduce the bits of pita to crumbs.
- Add the pita crumbs, egg, lime, sea salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the bowl with the lentils. Mix well with a spoon to distribute ingredients evenly. Use about ¼ cup of mixture to form 8 patties. I actually used a ¼ measuring cup and just scooped and dumped the mixture on to a plate. Once on the plate I pressed it into a thinner patty. Place the formed patties in the fridge for about 30 minutes, so that the burgers can firm up.
- Heat a large frying pan and olive oil. Once heated add the patties. Cook patties 5 to 6 minutes on each side until golden, then flip and repeat on the second side. Place on paper towels once done to remove excess olive oil.
- Serve on pita bread with all of your favorite burger toppings. We used lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and black olives.