Food Lust People Love: lentil burgers

The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.

Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.

Nobody likes a dry burger is one of my mottos. This goes for chicken and beef but it goes double for vegetarian patties. A little fat that won’t evaporate off when cooking is key. I first made these lentil burgers using bread I had baked with thick mozzarella slices in the dough.

The whole family declared them the perfect lentil burgers. The problem was, how to recreate them without having to bake that bread again each time, lovely though it was.

I took apart the bread recipe, figured out about how much mozzarella must have been in the number of slices I used for the first perfect lentil burgers and then added that into the new patty mix with plain whole grain sandwich bread. Much to our delight, it worked. I’ve made these lentil burgers many times since and they are always one of the first things my younger daughter asks for when she comes home. Hope you enjoy them!

Perfect Lentil Burgers

One note about the main ingredient, Puy lentils: You don't have to use green lentils actually grown in the Puy region of France because those can be pricey. I do recommend that you source the (almost) identical French lentils grown in other regions of France. They hold their shape much better than any other lentil I've tried, most of which go from not quite cooked to too mushy in a heartbeat. The French lentils will make a much better burger.

Ingredients – for four patties (about 7oz or 200g each – a substantial patty!)
4 slices whole grain sandwich bread
1/4 medium purple onion
2 eggs
3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella, grated
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne (I also use more. We like things spicy.)
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
1 cup or 210g uncooked (or about 2 1/2 cups or 485g cooked/rinsed) Puy lentils
(If you are cooking them, boil with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda till tender. Drain and rinse.)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and more for pan

To serve:
4 buns
Sliced tomatoes
Lettuce
Sliced onions
Your favorite condiments – mayo, mustard, ketchup, etc. We like mayo with a little garlic and lemon juice added too.

Method
Toast the slices of bread and cut them into cubes. Chop the onion up.

Process the toast cubes and the onion until the bread is in crumbs. Add the eggs and process until well combined.

Tip the mixture out into a bowl. Add the grated mozzarella and mix well. Add the smoked paprika, cayenne, a generous sprinkle sea salt and a few good grinds of black pepper. Mix well.

Add the rinsed, drained lentils and the extra virgin olive oil. Mix well.

Form into four patties.

Pan fry in non-stick pan or griddle with an extra drizzle of olive oil until golden on both sides, about 6-7 minutes a side should do it.

Serve with sliced tomatoes, onions and lettuce on a hamburger bun. You wanna put more cheese, you surely can but it's not necessary. We never do.

Enjoy!

This week Sunday Supper is sharing a plethora of creative hamburger and hot dog recipes that you are going to love! Many thanks to our host Christie of A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures and our event manager Shelby of Grumpy's Honeybunch for all of their hard work.

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