Recipe #110 Lentil Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 can of green lentils
• 115gr dry chickpeas
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 red chilli (optional)
• 5 tablespoons of plain flour
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

Extra flour to dust your hands and either olive oil or sunflower oil to fry the burgers.

For a healthier version see below.

You'll need a food processor for this.

Start by placing the chickpeas in water for about 1-2h. Get a food processor and with the chopping blade chop the onion, the garlic cloves and the chilli. Now add chickpeas (drained) and the lentils (rinse well so they are loose). Blend again for about 1 minute.
Now add the lemon juice, olive oil, flour, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until this forms a paste (around 2 minutes should be enough).

Flour your hands and with about 2 tablespoons of the burger mix shape this into a burger patty. 

1) For a healthier version of this recipe you can shape the burgers and place them on baking paper on an oven proof tray. You can bake them for around 20-25min on 180oC.

or you can fry them, just like meat burgers.
2) In a frying pan heat some oil and carefully place the burger shaped patty into the pan. With a skimmer carefully turn them so they fry on both sides. Around 4 minutes on each side should be enough to cook the burger and give it a golden colour.

The amount in this recipe makes 5 big burgers. Estimated cost for 5 burgers = under 40 cents (€) per burger.

Recipe #97 Lentil Lasagna

Shopping list (6 portions)

• 500 gr lasagna sheets
• 1 medium onion
• 2x can plum tomatoes
• 2 medium carrots
• salt & pepper & dry parsley & cayenne pepper
• 175g dry red lentils
• 500 ml water + 1 stock cube
• 2 1/2 cups of soy milk
• 100 gr grated dairy free cheese (e.g. violife)
• 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour

You'll need a food processor

Method 

Use the food processor with the chopping blade. Chop the carrots, and onion. Then add 1 can of tomatoes and blend. Transfer this into a medium sized saucepan and add the second can of tomatoes (either buy the tomatoes chopped already or roughly chop the plum tomatoes into big chunks).
Instead of 2 cans of tomatoes you can choose to buy Bolognese tomato sauce in a jar (700gr)

Add the lentils, the stock cube (usually I find the best to be Knorr Veg Stock Pot), the water (you can use the empty tomato can as a measuring cup), generous dash of salt, pepper, parsley and cayenne pepper.

Let this cook for around 20 minutes, some of the liquid should evaporate but not all as the liquid will be necessary for the lasagna sheets to cook.

Next: get an oven proof dish and layer first the lentil sauce, then 1 layer of pasta, then again lentil sauce and a pasta layer (repeat another set of layers if you still have sauce). Finish with a layer of pasta [in the picture below it's not the case so the tomato and the cheese blended]

Now for the bechamel: Heat the soy milk with the flour and nutritional yeast. Keep stirring ALL the time. Season with salt and pepper. When it is boiling add the cheese and keep stirring until the cheese is melted (at this point it will be a thick sauce so act quickly).

Pour this over the lasagna top layer of pasta and sprinkle with parsley.

Cook in the oven at 180-200 oC for around 30-40 minutes, when the pasta should be cooked.

Recipe #76 Lentil Creme Soup

Shopping list

• 2 big potatoes or 3 medium 
• 4 medium carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 200 gr dry lentils (soup mix or red)
• 2 teaspoons of salt (or less)

 

Method

Chop the vegetables and place them into a pot. Season with salt and olive oil and cover with water. Cook for 30min and pure everything. Add more water if needed to get the desired consistency.

Recipe #72 Green Lentil Gratin

Shopping list (6 portions)

• 150 gr dry green lentils
• 75 gr dry red lentils
• 1 stock cube vegetable
• 800 ml water
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 chopped carrots
• Pinch of salt, pepper, parsley, cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 250gr vegan cheese (violate pizza cheese)

Method

In a food processor chop the onions, carrots and garlic. Place them into a saucepan, on high flame with the olive oil, seasoning and let everything cook for some minutes. When the onions get soft place the lentils into the pan and cover with water and the vegetable cube. Turn the heat down to medium and cover. Let it cook for around 15-20min and stir from time to time so the lentils don't stick to the bottom.
When the lentils are cooked; grated half of the cheese into the bottom of an oven proof dish, cover with the lentils and grate the remaining cheese on the top. Place this into the oven for 15min on 200oC.

Recipe #46 Red Lentil Bolognese [vegan]

Shopping list (4 portions)

500 gr dry pasta

1 medium onion

1 can plum tomatoes

2 medium carrots

salt & pepper & dry parsley 

125gr dry red lentils

2 -4 tablespoons of olive oil

400 ml water + 1 stock cube

You'll need a food processor

Method 

Use the food processor with the chopping blade.

Chop the carrots, and onion. Transfer this into a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Open the can of tomatoes and empty this into the food processor. Chop the can of tomatoes for a few seconds.

By now the onion and carrot should be cooked, cover it with the tomato sauce and 400ml water (I use the empty tomato can to measure). Season with salt, pepper and parsley (chilli or cayenne pepper optional, if you like it spicy) and add the dry lentils and the stock cube.

Cover the saucepan and let it cook for 20min on medium heat (stir from the time to time to avoid that the lentils stick to the saucepan ).

Now cook the pasta al dente, normally 6-8min depending on the heat. Once it is cooked, drain the water (reserve 2 tablespoons of the water), throw the drained pasta into the same saucepan where you cooked them in (and add the reserved water to avoid that the pasta sticks).

Serve with a generous quantity of lentil sauce. (you can sprinkle with parmesan cheese if vegetarian).

You can additionally add 5 min before the end some sliced mushrooms (150gr) like the picture below.

Recipe #37 Vegan Butternut Squash and Lentil Risotto

Shopping list (4 -5 people)

1 butternut squash

300 gr arborio rice

1 onion

1 glass (around 175-200ml of white wine)

1,5 liter of vegetable stock

seasoning (dry parsley, salt, black pepper)

olive oil (2-3 tablespoons)

1/2 cup dry red lentils

Method 

Very similar to recipe #1.
So first thing peel the butternut squash. This can get messy, get a good peeler. After you have done place it on a tray, sprinkle with salt and pepper and olive oil and roast in the oven for 45min at around 220o C.

When you are done, the butternut squash should almost fall apart, so now start the risotto.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a big pan or wok (I use a wok). Chop the onion as small as you can or use a food processor - throw it into the olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper. Then add the roasted butternut squash and cover with the rice and one small glass of white wine (175ml). Let the wine evaporate almost completely and now start adding the vegetable stock.

I always use Vegetable stock Pot from Knorr, I find this to give much more flavour than the regular stock dry cubes. For 300gr risotto I use 2 pots in 1,5 litre boiling water.

Add a cup of vegetable stock at a time and wait till this almost evaporates and keep stiring. After the first cup of vegetable stock I added 1/2 cup washed dry red lentils. Continue to do this until there is no more vegetable stock. Sprinkle with seasoning again and dry parsley (or fresh coriander). Stir until there is no more vegetable stock and when this is done, turn off the heat and cover. Let it rest around 10-15 min before serving.
Sprinkle parmesan cheese or nuts to serve.