Mushroom Lentil Burgers
These 11-ingredient vegetarian mushroom lentil burgers are loaded with mushrooms, lentils, and a tad of sweet potato. Served with an avocado-lime sauce on a salad or bun, they are a delicious meal option.
My daughter and I love these mushroom lentil burgers.
These burgers are made with only 11 ingredients. Served with a salad or on a bun with all the fixings, they are a wholesome and delicious vegetarian meal. Add them to your weekend meal prep and snack on these all weak!
The 11 ingredients needed to make these vegetarian mushroom lentil burgers are:
- Olive oil
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1/2 inch piece of ginger chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 cup lentils (dry red lentils boiled in water for 30 minutes or 1 can 16 oz canned lentils)
- 1/2 a baked /cooked sweet potato
- 2 portabella mushroom caps chopped
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp coriander
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
You can save time by using canned lentils and any leftover sweet potato you might have around. If you don’t have a sweet potato but have a cooked/baked white/yellow/baking potato, that would work as well!
Every now and then, my daughter thinks she knows it all!
This phase of her teenage years has lead to some “animated” conversations between us, very often ending in me pointing out how annoying teenagers who think they know it all are to us, mature-er folks who actually do! Wait – you thought I would have some nugget of wisdom? Alas, all I have is humor-as this life is too short not to be able to laugh-at every phase! 🙂
However, yesterday, her know-it-all-ness saved me from a trip to the ER!
I am not too squeamish when it comes to bugs (P.S. this does NOT mean any bugs were hurt (or used) in the making of these Mushroom & Lentil Burgers).
I often don’t think twice about chasing a roach down or getting a spider out of my daughter’s room or employing a badminton racket to scare off a couple of carpenter bees.
However, I am not all too familiar with the habitats of these gazillion-legged creatures, fondly referred to as “creepy crawlies” or “yucksters” by my daughter. And my lack of familiarity almost ended up with a visit to the hospital yesterday evening – if not for my daughter. Yesterday, when I was in the middle of trimming some bushes, I came across this:
Of course it was attached to a bush I had begun to trim – thinking I could just hack at it with an axe and then throw it away, I first asked my daughter to come and take a look at my find as she is as fascinated with natures handiwork as I am. She took one look and cautioned me to move away quickly! What she knew –and I didn’t– was that this was home to a band of baldfaced hornets!
A lover of the budget friendly aspect of DIY pest control, I started to formulate my mode of attack; but my daughter Googled info on the severative of being stung by baldfaced hornets and talked me out of it.
This morning an exterminator sprayed the hornets nest before cutting it off the bush it was on and spraying the area to repel future baldfaced hornets -all while wearing a “bee-suit”…and left me to DIY away in the kitchen which resulted in these vegetarian burgers.
These mushroom heavy burgers were inspired by and entered into the Mushroom Council’s “Swap It or Top It” Recipe Contest closing on August 15th (in case you happen to have a delectable mushroom recipe please enter it for a chance at winning 5000 buckaroos)!
These burgers are loaded with mushrooms, lentils, and a tad of sweet potato; served with an avocado-lime sauce, they don’t even need a bun! I could go on about how good these are – but I think they would be best reviewed by sampling them yourselves!
Ingredients
For the burgers:
- Olive oil
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1/2 inch piece of ginger chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 cup lentils dry red lentils boiled in water for 30 minutes or 1 can 16 oz canned lentils
- 1/2 a baked /cooked sweet potato
- 2 portabella mushroom caps chopped
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp coriander
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
For the avocado-lime sauce:
- 1/2 avocado
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 small container of plain yogurt
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the burgers:
- If you are using dry lentils, then go ahead and boil 1 cup of lentils in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. when done, strain away any excess water and use the cooked lentil in this. HOWEVER, you can save 30 minutes by using 1 16 oz can of canned lentils.
- If you do not have half of a sweet potato lying around, this is a good time to bake a sweet potato while the lentils are cooking (if you are using dry lentils). Cut the potato in quarters, wrap in foil and bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until tender.
- Add oil to a pan over medium heat.
- Add in the onions, ginger, and garlic and saute for 10 minutes, stirring often so they don’t burn.
- Add in the sweet potato, lentils, mushrooms, and spices and mix well and remove the pan from the heat.
- Then add the coconut flour into the pan with the ingredients.
- When the mixture is cool enough to handle, roughly divide the mixture into 6/8 portions, then gather the ingredients in each portion up in your hands, squeeze them together to bind, and form into patties. Place formed patties on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the portions until you have 6-8 patties/burgers.
- Then, add a bit of oil to the same pan and place it on medium heat again.
- And place the burgers in the pan (you might have to cook in two batches if your pan is small) – let each burger saute 4-5 minutes. Then flip and saute another 4-5 minutes or until lightly browned.
For the avocado-lime sauce:
- Add all the ingredients into a blender and blend till well incorporated
To Serve:
- Serve burgers on a salad with sauce or on buns if you prefer.
Hornets are nasty, and definitely I’d want to call an exterminator rather than tackle them myself. Your daughter done good. And you did us good with this recipe! Really like the idea of the mushrooms — they add so much “meaty” flavor, don’t they? As do the lentils. Really good — thanks.
Thanks so much!!
Yes, the mushrooms added so much meaty flavor – I really enjoyed their texture in these burgers.
Totally loving this recipe… I’m a mushroom lover but I don’t eat them enough. Now I can have them in burger form – yes!
Glad that the hornets situation didn’t go bad! 🙁
Thanks so much Pamela – I am glad too!
I’m so glad you didn’t attack that hornet’s nest. They’re vicious! We had a huge nest in our yard a few years ago and I stayed far away! Love these burgers, especially the avocado sauce. Great post, Shashi!!
Thanks so much Bill!
I would have just left it – but it was in a high traffic area – I am glad I wasn’t stung the many times I have walked by and weeded – and the exterminator said, if I had waited a month or so – it would have been 3 times it’s size and the hornets would have been more aggressive.
I’m so glad that your daughter knew about the hornets – that could have been BAD!!!
And, have I told you – I’ve never had lentils. Sad but true!!
Kim – If you take a road trip to Atlanta, I will make you lentils in as many ways as I can think of!
Thanks God for your daughter, she saved your life.
I’ve just googled “baldfaced hornets” and they look like pretty nasty little creatures. I’m glad you didn’t start a fight with them, it might have turned pretty bad for you :/
And what about these burgers? Mushrooms and lentils: what’s there not to love? 🙂
Mike – no kidding! I googled them suckers too and I was pretty shocked! Apparently unlike bee stings which can be deadly if one’s allergic to them, hornet stings affect everyone equally badly! My daughter has been walking around like she’s the queen bee of our home!
Oh, and thank you! 🙂
The veggie burgers sound and look totally delicious! Mushrooms and lentils, what’s there not to love about it?
Thanks for posting a picture of the nest. I had no idea what they look like. Not that I ever venture out in the backyard, just too scared of all the creepy crawlies out there. So glad to hear your daughter saved you.
Thanks so much Asmita!
I had no idea what this was either – can you believe this nest was only a week or two old? The exterminator told me that these nests can grow to 5 feet in diameter within 3-4 months!
Veggie burgers to me are so unique because they can be made up of so many different things! Lentils are super healthy too so these are wonderful subs for the real deal! 🙂
So you got we wondering, which one is more difficult to deal with the teenager or the hornets nest? I guess I’m just glad mine are 2 and 4 still!! hehe.
Love your mushroom and lentil burgers, have never tried anything really but a traditional burger. Like the splash of sweet potato and the fact your don’t need a calorie loaded bun!
Love these lentil burgers, they look fantastic Shashi! The lentil, sweet potato and mushroom sound amazing and I could seriously drink that avocado lim sauce! Eeks, so glad you listened to your daughter, I’m so terrified of hornets and can’t imagine what would have happened. Thank goodness she knew what to do 🙂
This is the second time today that I’ve seen someone make some delicious veg burgers! It’s making me want to make my own! I’m glad that you didn’t get stung! You never know what your reaction might be to something like that! Smart daughter you have 🙂
I am petrified of hornets and wasps, was stung multiple times as a child when I knocked a nest out of a tree. Not a wise move. I love your burgers, mushrooms and lentils, what a brilliant combination they turned out beautifully!! I am going to try them. So glad you got rid of the pests.
These sounds amazingly tasty, Shashi! I love the sound of the mushroom-lentil-sweet potato combo, and I love anything beautiful and crispy like this. I’m sure they more than made up for your horrible fright when you found the hornets’ nest! Your daughter is super clever knowing what that was. I wouldn’t have had a clue! Thank goodness you escaped any nasty stings!
I am SO glad you listened to your daughter, that could have been TERRIBLE!!! But I am glad that these burgers came out of the event – I really need to try me some more veggie burger-oos and these look yumer-i-fic! Pinned!
I’m so glad you’re daughter was able to come to the rescue. I have a teenage daughter and she thinks she knows it all as well – she thought it would be wise to head to the USA for a solo holiday – I’m now heading over thereto rescue her! xx
Please excuse me for not be able to reading through the paragraphs of creepy crawlies….
These lentil burgers look awesome!
Sometimes we all have moments when we think we know it all. Thankfully for you, your daughter WAS right.
These mushroom lentil burgers sound better than good!