These Vegan Lentil Burgers are the absolute best! They're so satisfying and nutritious thanks to the cooked lentils, brown rice, sweet potato, and onion. Serve with your favorite burger toppings and a side of home fries for a burger night to remember.
1 ¾ cupsof cooked lentils (brown, green or black; not orange/red)
1mediumonion, coarsely chopped
1garlic clove
1cupof chopped sweet potato,(skins on)
½ cupof chopped walnuts
1cupof brown rice, cooked
⅓ cupof ketchup (or tomato paste)
1tablespoonof dijon or yellow mustard
3tablespoonsof flax meal
1teaspoonof sea salt
¼ teaspoonof cayenne pepper or black pepper
¾-1cupof coarse cornmeal (polenta), as needed
Instructions
Ideally, pre-cook your rice and lentils and let them cool. If you have some in the fridge as leftovers, even better (the drier they are the better). If not, cook them up, remove them from heat and set aside. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
In a food processor combine onion, garlic, sweet potato, and walnuts. Process until finely chopped and uniform consistency. Add cooked rice and lentils and process once more, scraping down the sides as needed. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add ketchup or tomato paste, mustard, flax meal, salt, and cayenne (or black pepper), and stir well.
Add cornmeal until the mixture is thick and you're able to easily form a patty in your hands. Make small palm-sized patties, think slider size. You can make them larger, but the smaller ones bake up a little better and have less risk of breaking apart.
Place formed patties on a baking sheet, evenly space them apart so they have room to cook, and be flipped. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then carefully flip over. Return to oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until both sides are evenly browned and they have a nice crisp coating.
Serve on bread, bun, or lettuce wrap of choice, or simply crumble over a salad. Top with your favorite burger fixings and save any for later. Enjoy!
Notes
Make sure to use the right lentils. These lentil burgers are specifically formulated using brown, green, or black lentils. If you only have red split lentils, make these Easy Red Lentil Patties instead.
Cook the lentils and rice well in advance. This is a great meal prep recipe and is best made with refrigerated lentils and rice. If you have to cook the lentils and rice fresh, make sure to leave enough time to cool and cool completely before starting. If the lentils and rice are warm, the plant-based burgers will be mushy.
Double the recipe for meal prep. This recipe as written makes about 6 slider-sized lentil burger patties, but this vegan lentil burger recipe can be doubled and frozen for an easy dinner in the future.