Burgers are the best. I love burgers.
If burgers were people, they’re the kind of people I’d want to be friends with. They’ve got loads of flavor, they’re juicy, they have great texture…
Where was I?
As much as I love vegetables, I crave meat every so often. Big time. Sadly this means I normally end up chowing down on over processed fake meats. These handy substitutes serve a purpose for sure, but I always prefer making something from scratch. Enter: today’s recipe.
Now, I’ve played around with a bunch of recipes in my search of the perfect burger. I’ve made batches and batches with different flavors and ingredients. Aside from a shameful few that shall never be mentioned again, all of these burgers tasted great. But a great burger can’t just taste great, it has to be juicy and have a great texture that holds together.
It’s taken a while but I’ve finally come to something pretty special.
Okay, how do we make this?
The fine folks at the Food Lab took the time to detail the components that make their perfect burger (and it’s pretty damn good), and my recipe borrows their use of eggplant to add moisture and juiciness to the patties and the panko breadcrumbs to improve the structure.
When it comes to the beans – because every good burger deserves beans – I opted for lentils. They’re something that my cupboards are always stocked with and I’m always looking for ways to include them in recipes. They taste great and are so good for you it is almost silly.
For the grains I picked millet. It’s a great choice as a binding element and has steered me well in the past when making my own burgers. Paired with the lentils it creates a patty with great texture.
Veggies for this beauty were mushrooms, onions, green onions, peas and the eggplant of course. The mushrooms add a great “meaty” quality to the mix and, well, I’m just a bit of an onion fiend. Mwuahaha. The eggplant was there for essential moisture, so the green onions and peas were bonus. You can of course play around with the vegetables you choose to add depending on your person taste and you’ll probably end up with something you’re very happy with.
Well there it is: my best attempt at veggie burgers. Oh, and in the excitement I forgot to mention they’re vegan-friendly too. Another bonus! While the recipe does involve a little groundwork – preparing the lentils, millet, eggplant and mushrooms – before you can be elbow deep in gooey burger mixture goodness, I would definitely recommend giving it a go.
VEGAN-FRIENDLY LENTIL BURGER
By Charlie Butler
yield: 12 patties
What you’ll need:
- 7 medium sized white mushrooms
- 1/2 small eggplant
- 1/2 green lentils
- 1/4 cup millet
- 1 medium onion
- 3 green onions
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 cups of peas
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 3 tablespoons of canola oil
How it’s done:
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and wrap the eggplant in tin foil. Once the oven has heated up, place the mushrooms and wrapped eggplant on a baking tray in the middle of the oven. Leave to cook for around an hour or until the mushrooms are a good dark brown and your eggplant is tender. Once they’re done, take them out of the oven, unwrap the eggplant, and set everything aside to cool.
2. While the mushrooms and eggplants are doing their magic in the oven, you can begin preparing the lentils. Add 1/2 cup dried lentils to 4 cups of water and simmer in a saucepan with a lid on. Do this until the water is completely absorbed – roughly 20 minutes. Once they’re cooked, transfer to a large mixing bowl and mash them coarsely with the back of a fork.
3. For the millet, bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Once it’s bubbling away, add the 1/4 cup of millet and cook for around 20 minutes on a low heat until the water is absorbed. Fluff the millet with a fork and add to your mixing bowl.
4. To prepare the onions give them a quick blitz in a food processor to get them chopped up nice and fine and transfer them to a dry frying pan on a low heat. Slowly cooking them for around 15 minutes to remove a little bit of the moisture. Keep stirring occasionally to avoid them browning too much. 10 minutes into the cook toss in the green onions.
5. Grate the garlic cloves and add it and the peas to the onions (which should be nice and soft now) and cook for another 2 minutes. Now add the vegetables and the flour to the patty mix and allow to cool before seasoning with salt and pepper. The eggplant and mushrooms should be a good temperature to work with, so individually whiz them in the food processor – seven or eight pulses for the mushrooms and the eggplant until it reaches a puree consistency – and add them to your mix.
6. This is the important thing: don’t add the breadcrumbs until you’re ready to form the mixture into patties and cook as it will cause the panko to absorb too much liquid. When you are ready, toss in the panko and combine all of the ingredients. Form the mix into balls in the middle of your palm and flatten into patties. The mixture should yield around 12 decent sized patties, but you can make them bigger or smaller depending on your preference.
7. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the patties, cooking them for around 4 minutes on each side so they are nice and golden brown. I then like to melt some vegan cheese on top of the patties so put them under the grill for a few more minutes and serve with your choice of buns and toppings.