Chickpea and red lentil burgers

  A great source of dietary fibre and protein, these vegan burgers can be pan fried, oven baked and are even great on a summer BBQ. 

We are well into summer now, although you wouldn’t know it with the flash flood warning predicted for tomorrow,  so that means BBQ season. 
All too often the non-meat option at a BBQ consists of haloumi and grilled vegetables or if you’re vegan, the side salad that accompanies the meat. I am a meat eater but sometimes I just don’t fancy it and I’m not the biggest fan of haloumi… Bit too salty for me.

My spicy bean burgers are great for a summer BBQ and I guarantee your host will thank you for taking the vegan predicament out of their hands if you bring them along. 

The ingredients are pretty standard pantry fodder so you won’t have to go out and buy anything special for it.

Ingredients 

1 can of chickpeas (any beans will do really. Kidney beans are particularly nice)

100g of red lentils

1 small can of sweetcorn

1 finely chopped red chilli (sub for a bell pepper if you’re feeding this to a youngster)

1 mashed clove of garlic

1 red onion

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon paprika – I prefer smoky but it’s up to you. 

Handful of chopped coriander but parsley works fine too

Good pinch of salt

Good grind of pepper

Little bit of flour – if the mix seems a bit wet.

Method

Cook your lentils in boiling, seasoned water for about 20 minutes. Drain and set to one side.

Sweat your onions in a pan with your garlic and chilli.

When cooked add your lentils, onion mix, chickpeas and spices to a food processor.

Blitz until smooth (you can pulse it but you may find it tricky to keep the patties together when you cook them without an egg to bind).

Fold in your chopped coriander and sweetcorn. Taste for seasoning. 

Form the mix into patties. If your mix is a bit wet, now would be the time to fold in a bit of flour. For oven baking your patties you can go as big as palm sized, if you pan fry or BBQ I’d opt for either slightly smaller or slightly thinner so they cook all the way through.

Bake in the oven at 190’c fan for about 15 minutes. If you pan fry it’s going to be 5 mins each side. BBQ is always an unknown. Keep an eye on them but try not to constantly touch them as they will break up.

My fave way to have these is with a bit of salsa or just a bit of ketchup.

Hope you enjoy these tasty burgers. 

Thanks for reading, C x