My, my... look at all the dust that collected here again. It's been too long since I posted last here, but we did recently have a treat of a meal. In fact, it was so good I decided to blog about it. I also recently finished reading Eat and Run by Scott Jurek and Steve Friedman. Great book, very entertaining and good enjoyable read. Needless to say, it has some very interesting *vegan* recipes, one of which is for the fantastic lentil mushburgers. I usually don't read or apply cooking instructions to the letter, but prefer to follow my instincts and have fun experimenting in the kitchen. Never having prepared anything vegan before, I felt uncertain on how to go about things and preparing the meal, so I yielded to Scott's easy to follow steps. In hindsight, it was also a wise decision.
Ingredients
1 cup of lentis
2 1/4 cups of water
1 teaspoon of dried parsley
3/4 teaspoon of black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 cups of fine bread crumbs
1/2 cup of ground flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
1 1/4 cups of finely chopped onions
3/4 cups of finely chopped walnuts
3 cups of finely chopped mushrooms
1 1/2 cups of destemmed finely chopped kale or spinach
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Preparation
Cover the lentils with water by about an inch. Bring the lentils and water to a boil. About 10 minutes into the boil, remove from the stove and drain. Throw away the water, this helps avoid cramps lentils may give, and it may also ease flatulence caused by lentils. Add the 2 1/4 cups of water, parsley 1 garlic clove and 1/4 cup of chopped onions. I chopped fresh parsley, can't think of why not since it was in season.
While lentils are cooking, combine walnuts, bread crumbs and flax seed in a large bowl. Add nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and paprika. Mix well. This mixture will later be used to compound everything together. Once in the bowl, let it sit and sauté the vegetables.
In a frying pan, heat up the olive oil, caramlize the onions, add the remaining garlic, mushroom and kale (again, I had the luxury of the one of the most underrated super vegetables: fresh kale).
Sautéing should take about 8-10 minutes. Once the mushrooms become soft, turn off the stove and let the pan cool down.
Once the lentils are cooked, using a potato masher or wooden spoon, mash them together into a thick paste.
Now combine everything. Add the vegetables to the mixture from the large bowl, mix well. Then add the lentil paste to the same large bowl, mix ever more. I had to add an extra little bit of olive oil to make it all stick together. Your mileage may vary, obviously.
Once this becomes homogeneous, store it in the fridge to cool down. It may need up to an hour to really cool down. Using your hands, scoop out a ball of the paste that fit in the palm of your hand. Roll the ball between your hands and form burger patties. This whole amount should give between 10 and 12 burgers.
The patties can be stored in the fridge for a day or two. If you do put them in a fridge, make sure there are air-tight and well covered. Otherwise, they will crack and dry out. Patties can also be frozen.
To make the mushburgers, the patties must then be either grilled on the BBQ, fried in a skillet or broiled in the oven. They need to get crips and lightly browned. Along with a nice whole wheat bun, they will make a wholesome, completely vegan and fantastic mushburger.
Instead of fries, a selection of seasonal vegetables will make an awesome accompanying dish. On olive oil and finely chopped onions, you can sauté carrots, zuchini, marrow, beans, potatoes, broccoli, kohlrabi or whatever other veggie you can find.
Finally, Scott, thanks for this gem. It is truly awesome!
