Lentil-Walnut Burgers

It's Labor Day Weekend, and I kicked mine off by making Lentil-Walnut Burgers. This weekend will be full of sunshine, grilling, exercise, kidlets, family and friends. We're off to a delicious start!

I boiled lentils on the stove and mixed them with apple cider vinegar.

Then I mashed the dickens out of them with a potato masher!

As luck would have it, I had the perfect amount of walnuts left in this zippy walnut bag.  I left them in and used the handle of a knife to mash them to smithereens!  Upon reflection, this would be a great recipe to make if you have a lot of aggression to get out.

Once everything was mashed and bashed, I cooked the veggies on the stove: onion, garlic, mushroom, and spinach, seasoned with dry mustard. The walnuts went in too.

Look at all that goodness!  Soft, minced up bits of goodness.

Everything went into a bowl: veggie mix, mashed lentils, and some bread crumbs. The bowl chilled in the fridge for an hour.

Then it was time to pop some tots into the oven, slice up some burger toppers, form patties and fry these burgers up!

(Sidenote: Hey Trader Joe's!  Want to sponsor me?  I purchase virtually all of my goods from you!  While your at it, you should sponsor my dear blogfriend Ainsley too ... !)

Just a little oil in the pan goes a long way.

These looked so much like beef burgers ... it was eerie!  The taste was totally out of this world. Flaky, crispy, with the depth of lentils and the familiar flavor of onion and garlic. The green specks of spinach reminded me that I am a very happy, healthy girl.  I served these burgers bunless, with cheese, tomato, pickles, and tots. Lots of mustard and ketchup on the side. The only downside was that these crumbled quite a bit when I sunk my fork into them. Otherwise a totally beautiful, delightful, vegetarian dinner!