If you’re after a fun, quick and easy meat free monday idea then this recipe has you covered. I’ve been playing around with veggie patties for a while now and I’m finally really happy with one. This patty has a good ratio of vegetables and legume, and a flavour that doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the burger components, just gets a nice little harmony going on with them.  And that’s exactly what I wanted from this burger.

That said there will probably be another recipe in the near future but I’m think a slider sized thing for the next one… but back to this recipe. You could easily use the broccoli burger bun recipe from A Million Miles for the bun, as it’s delicious and adds another vegetable to this meal. But I used the rolls from Baker D. Chirico that Wild Things in Fitzroy North stocks, as they’re delicious and only minutes from my house, and this saves me time. Win.

You could really put anything you want into the burger but I think the selection of ingredients suggested below complements the veggie patties nicely! As the patties freeze well I’ve just included burger fillings for 1 burger, obviously just multiply by the number of burgers you need.

Makes 8 patties

Ingredients

1/2 cup french puy lentils

1 cup water

pinch salt

1 large zucchini (or 2 small)

1 large carrot (or 2 small)

2 eggs

2/3 cup flour (buckwheat, plain, wholemeal or spelt flour would all work fine)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tsp paprika

2/3 cup flat leaf parsley leaves

1/2 cup roughly chopped spring onion

1 Tbs olive oil

For assembly of each burger

1 roll or burger bun, sliced in half

1 Tbs hummus

2 Tbs guacamole, or avocado slices

2 slices tomato

handful of rocket

1-2 Tbs grated strong provolone (optional)

sirarcha sauce, or chilli chutney to taste

Directions

Rinse lentils and place with water and a pinch of salt in a pot, cook over medium heat until boiling and then turn down to a simmer and continue to cook for about 15 minutes or until they smush when squeezed in your fingers.

Place drained lentils in a blender and blitz briefly. Finely grate the zucchini and carrot and add to a food processor with lentils, add all other ingredients excluding the oil. Pulse until well combined.

Pace oil in a large fry pan on a medium heat and once hot add patty shaped handfuls of the mixture. It will be quite wet so it’s best to scoop out about 1/2 – 2/3 of a cup of mix from the food processor, shape it and then immediately place in the pan. Depending on the size of the pan you should be able to cook 4 at a time, do not crowd the pan. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side or until golden.

To assemble burgers: Grill the buns in the patty pan briefly until just starting to colour, place the provolone (if using) on the inside of the top bun and grill until melted in the oven using the grill setting at 200 degrees celsius. To the bottom of the bun add hummus, followed by rocket then tomato slices. Top this with a veggie patty, follow with avocado, sirarcha then the top burger bun. Try to get your mouth around that burger tower and enjoy.

Grab a napkin, it’s going to get messy.

HH. x