For a moment, please consider the lentil. The protein packed legume is used heavily throughout the vegetarian world for its hardy flavor and beefy consistency. As my wedding date slowly creeps up, I’m trying to eat super healthy by excluding a lot of animal fats and proteins, so vegetarian and vegan meals right now are totally up my alley. I’m even considering the idea of the “vegan until dinnertime” diet by Mark Bittman of the New York Times. It’s exactly how it sounds: you eat a vegan diet until suppertime rolls around and then anything goes! I don’t know if I can ditch my Chobani yogurts as my mid-morning snack, but we’ll see what happens. Anyways, back to the lentils.
Of course, my bff Martha Stewart had an ab fab recipe for mediterranean veggie burgers with mint yogurt sauce and a carrot salad that I thought sounded awesome. Particularly because they feature my other new bff, lentils! This burger was super satisfying and truly delicious. Here’s what I did:
4 medium carrots, grated
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 scallions, thinly sliced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
5 whole-wheat hamburger buns I used 100% whole wheat sandwich thins)
2 cups lentils, cooked and cooled
1 large egg
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup plain low-fat greek yogurt
1 head Bibb lettuce (I used baby spinach leaves instead)
First off, I made the mint yogurt sauce so the ingredients had time to marry. In a bowl, combine yogurt, half of the mint, and one tablespoon of the lemon juice; season with salt and pepper. I also threw in a few chopped scallions too. Set the sauce in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
To make the carrot salad, grate the carrots (either by hand or if you’re blessed enough to have a large food processor with a grater attachment) and put in a large bowl. Toss with two tablespoon of lemon juice, one tablespoon olive oil, s&p and half of the scallion. Set that aside.
Now onto the burgers! Take one of the hamburger buns (unless you are also using the sandwich thins, then I would use two buns since they are less dense) and pulse it in the food processor. To the bread crumbs, add half of the lentils, remaining mint, remaining scallions, egg and s&p and combine. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add remaining lentils. By processing only half of the lentils, it gives the burgers some nice texture since half of the lentil are still whole.
Divide the mixture into fourths, form into patties and grill for about 4 minutes on each side. Toast the buns and top with the spinach or lettuce and the mint sauce. Don’t forget the carrot salad on the side!
These burgers are wicked tasty and seriously healthy. If you wanted to omit the bun and just serve on a bed of baby spinach, that would be great too! This meal may not be vegan, but it’s probably one of the tastiest vegetarian meals I’ve had in a while.
- Jackie
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