Last night I had spent some time awake and as usual, worked up an appetite from tossing and turning. That's my exercise. When I wake up like that I get an appetite for things that are kind of heavy and fun.
I was determined to have a big loaded veggie burger. My main ingredient for veggie burgers is brown lentils and nuts. I like to throw in mushrooms and zucchini for moisture and texture.
Yesterday we went for a walk and discovered a whole bunch of chives growing in a ditch by a closed down building. I took them home and planted them by my other small chives.
Then today I decided to chop a bunch down and throw them into the burger.
These are the ingredients I put in but you could eliminate the herbs and spices or add your own.
1 cup cooked lentils
1 cup ground lentils
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 ground portobello mushroom
2 zucchinis grated
1 cup chopped chives
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 dates
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
In a food processor grind all of the ingredients together.
For the lentils, I cooked half and ground half. I ground up the cooked lentils and added everything to the mix.
I made the patties then coated with cornstarch. They are fairly soft before you cook them so if you put them in the freezer for a while, they are easier to manage and the dry ingredients will swell up with the moisture from the zucchini and the mushrooms.
I cooked them in a pan because they weren't in the freezer long enough but if they were frozen or almost frozen you could put them on the grill with a little brush of oil.
These were really moist but firmed up quite nicely. In the past I have had them more firm before cooking and just added a little water to the pan after they were browned but this time it was perfect.
While the burgers were cooking I took the time to climb up the apple tree and pretend that I was in the country. I can imagine the neighbors were wondering why the crazy old lady is up in a tree.
Bruce was a little concerned with it.
I cooked some green peppers to put on the burger as well.
We ran out of mustard which we wanted, but there was some leftover dill and chive dressing. You can get my recipe for that here.
I made a simple coleslaw which was made from shredded cabbage and carrots,sliced red onion and parsley. For the vinaigrette I boiled 1/4 cup vinegar with 2 tablespoons cane sugar, and salt then cooled it off. It was added to the slaw along with a tablespoon of olive oil. It was marinating in the dressing while the burgers were cooking.
Would we be able to fit this in our mouths? I let Marc try it first.
It worked! How do we do it?
We indulged today and really enjoyed it. After all it's Friday, which is the same for me as any other day but that is my excuse for having a burger party.