Veggie Burgers

VEGGIE PATTIES

INGREDIENTS:

(Veggie patties)

1 c white lentils

1 c green lentils

2 c black beans (cooked)

1 t garlic powder

4 cloves of garlic

¼ t chili flakes

1 T salt

½ t freshly cracked pepper

½ onion

1 lb mushrooms

4 T oil

5 T AP flour (oat flour to keep GF)

3 eggs

(ketchup)

1/8 t salt

pinch of garlic powder

pinch of onion powder

1 T tomato paste

¼ t vinegar (cider or white)

¼ t sugar

1 T water

Yield: 12 (1/4 lb) patties

I love burgers, I however am not a fan of red meat. I was a vegetarian for over half of my life and now I just can't stomach much meat. And I don't really trust textured soy protein, I like to know what I'm eating. I also found that a lot of the veggie burgers out there didn't have much flavor to them, that or they tasted like old green peppers. (I'm not the biggest fan of green peppers either) I do love beans though, and mushrooms, both are packed with protein.

Start cooking your lentils. White and green lentils normally cook at different times, but I cook them together because I like the texture difference within the patties. To cook the lentils bring a pot of water to a boil and add the lentils, cook for 15 minutes. You can start cooking the rest while lentils are cooking.

Cut up the mushrooms and onions. They don't have to be super small because everything is going into a food processor at the end.

I normally don't cook my onions and mushrooms together, but for this recipe it doesn't matter. While the mushrooms and onions are cooking you can mince your garlic.

When your mushrooms have a good color, add the garlic.

Drain and rinse off the beans and add to the mixture.

Give the mixture a quick toss so the flavors can start mixing.

Add spices, salt and pepper to mixture.

Cook out most of the liquid, you don't want the mixture too wet because it will make the patties mushy.

When your lentils are cooked, strain and add to a mixing bowl.

Make sure all of the liquid has been strained before adding to a mixing bowl.

Add the bean/mushroom mixture to the bowl with the lentils. Mix everything with a spoon or rubber spatula and let it cool before adding to the food processor. If you add hot ingredients to your processor it's going to cloud the plastic, and you're also going to be adding eggs and you don't want them to cook before they're fully incorporated.

Add cooled mixture to the processor and give it a couple of pulses, then add the eggs one at a time. Adding a little flour with each egg.

Pulse until the mixture has come together, but still has some texture. You don't want it to be like hummus.

Form into 1/4 lb patties, or however big you want them.

Lay patties out on a sheet pan and pre-heat oven to 350.

Cook for 20 minutes. Baking patties helps dry out more liquid and will cook the eggs. I like to bake them before freezing, because it cuts the cooking time down significantly for future meals.

Once they've been baked and cooled I put them in a freezer bag and save for future meals. The best way to re-heat the patties is to thaw them out and then pan fry them, if you're making a lot you can just throw them back on the sheet pan and drizzle a little oil over them and throw in a 365 oven for about 15 minutes.

And now for the ketchup....

Okay so it may seem weird that I make my own ketchup, but we really don't eat that much of it, so even the smallest bottle of ketchup would go bad before we would use it. When I buy tomato paste (about as rare as ketchup) I like to divide the can up in tablespoons, a little goes a long way with that stuff. I freeze what I don't use. Just add the ingredients together and mix it up. This ketchup does not taste like Heinz, I'm not going to lie and tell you it does. Heinz has a lot of sugar in it, and corn syrup, but this ketchup is a great condiment for this burger. This recipe is just enough for 3 burgers.

Enjoy.