Veggie Burgers

Instructions

1. For the Lentils: Combine lentils with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer, stirring occasionally. In about 25 minutes, check for doneness. You want them to be tender but not overdone. At this stage, some lentils will be split apart but not the majority of them. Check frequently and taste as they cook to find the right texture for you. Salt to taste. Cool on a clean tea towel which will help pull out some excess moisture.
2. For the Bulgar: Bring the water to a boil in a small pot. Add the bulgar, cover, and turn off. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Strain and set on a towel for a few minutes to pull out excess moisture. Combine with lentils and either cover and put in fridge overnight or set aside and start with the veggies.
3. Heat several tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan to saute the diced onions, leeks, celery, carrots, and garlic together. Cook for about 10 minutes until the onions are translucent and the carrots are tender. Set aside. Using the same pan, cook the mushrooms, adding more olive oil to the pan before you cook them. When softened, in about 10 minutes, set aside with the other cooked veggies.
4. Let the veggies cool off for about 20 minutes before combining in a large bowl with the bulgur and lentils.
5. In a food processor, take your cashews and pulse to a coarse texture. Mix in with the veggies. Don’t clean the bowl; instead, working in batches, run the entire mixture through the food processor. Pulse 15-20 one-second-pulses. The texture should be small but a little grainy still.
6. Set aside pulsed mixture into a clean bowl and repeat this pulsing until all the cooked vegetables, bulgur, and cashews are processed.
7. Add 3 eggs, 1-2 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper to your liking at this point and mix together until combined.
8. Finally, add the breadcrumbs and mix until thoroughly combined.
9. You can set this aside and cook over a few days, freeze some, make some patties or a veggie loaf with this too. It’s a really versatile recipe! For burgers, shape the patties into about 5 ounce burgers. I do weigh this out using our kitchen scale. Flatten to about 1/2” high by 4” wide. At this stage, you can shape them and freeze on individual parchment sheets for freezer storage. Alternatively, shape and cook them all and freeze as cooked patties to reheat later. Either option works well for us.
10. In a large skillet, put about 1/8-1/4” of vegetable oil in the bottom of the pan. You want to be able to have the bottom and part of the sides of the veggie burger submerged in the oil. It’s kind of a fried burger.
11. Heat to medium high and then reduce heat to medium or medium low to cook the burgers. Cook for about 4 minutes and then carefully flip over. Our favorite kitchen cooking utensil is this very simple fish flipper, seen below in action.

There’s a fine line between getting them perfectly browned and possibly taking it too far. I have been cooking mine in a 12” cast iron skillet and once I flip them, I usually lower the heat to medium low, depending on how golden brown the first side cooks up.