This thought had appeared to me when I was going through recipes looking for brown lentils. I couldn’t find one to my liking then this idea popped in to my head like a light bulb which you see in a cartoon when a cartoon character has a brain storm. You can see above his or her head a thought bubble with a lit light bulb and this is how I felt. Then you could hear the word ding, lol. Go figure this is very funny. So with this idea in mind I quickly acted on it. I was already wanting the homemade lentil soup that was my own recipe alone but I looked and to my dismay didn’t have any carrots and I had less then half a bag of brown lentils in my huge bean bucket.
I used 1/2 of a 1 lb or 1 kilo of brown lentils and put them in to soak from this morning. Let them soak for 12 hours to overnight. Do not boil. You do not want mushy lentils for making a veggie burger. I seen some that said cook lentils for grinding. Seriously in my book that is all wrong.
I drained my lentils this evening reserving the liquid and set it aside for later use. This will be used later. I added the soaked lentils to my food processor and I added 1 sliced shallot and 1 sliced clove of garlic. I turned on the food processor to the 3rd speed setting to grind the lentils i soaked along with the shallot and garlic. I added 3 tbs of Bragg’s liquid amino’s or soy sauce, 1 tsp of black strap molasses, 2 pinches of xanthan gum, 1 pinch of nutritional yeast, 1 drop of ghost pepper sauce or 1 tsp of siracha sauce (optional), 2 handfuls of rice flour.
I turned on again my food processor to mix everything on the 3rd speed again for 30 seconds then turned it off opened it to see if everything was well mixed. I added a tiny bit of the reserve water for soaking the lentils. It was about 2 tbs of the reserve water. Don’t use too much, if you do then it would be too soft to work with. Following this method will make your veggie burgers come out great. The mix was just at a right consistency was right on the money. It was really on point or spot on is another way to say for well done.
Bravo I can give myself a pat on the back because it came out great. Now the cast iron skillet is what i use and it is my favorite here in my house. You can use whatever frying pan you have. I used peanut oil for frying but you can use peanut, corn, or even canola oil. Peanut oil has a higher smoke point of any oil but if you are allergic to peanuts please do not use. Also this is a low gluten recipe. There was no wheat used at all for this recipe and hopefully ideal for someone who has wheat sensitivity and it is vegan.
Now we can fry, I wet my hands and took a little of the lentil mixture and formed it in to a patties and placed it on a spatula to put it in to the hot oil to fry until golden brown on both sides. This should take 2 minutes per side until it is done and I fried 4 patties at a time in my large cast iron skillet until there was no more mixture left. Also it all depends on the size and type of your frying pan. Shallow frying is advisable. Never deep fry a veggie burger and I never deep fry because it is just plain unhealthy and a total waste of oil. Besides shallow frying conserves oil and therefore no need to waste.
After I made these burgers I threw away the rest of the soaking water from soaking the lentils since I don’t have a further need for it. The Indians does this all of the time when they soak rice and lentils for making idli and dosa and with this in mind I applied it to making these yummy veggie burgers.
I really have fun making these and i also made something like a salad to use as toppings for the burgers. You can use any choice of topping and condiments you wish even if it is cheese and for vegans there is vegan soy cheese.
This is what i used for my veggie burgers and of course eat them on whole grain bread is recommended. Also there is gluten free bread on the market too. This can be eaten as a salad or as what I used it for a veggie burger topping. I added one sliced tomato, I sliced cucumber, I head of romaine lettuce, 1 bunch of arugula and 1 handful of baby spinach. Then I added rice vinegar and mixed it in to the toppings/ salad.
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