Red Lentil Burgers with Basil Pesto

Happy Tuesday guys! Recipe of the day is Red Lentil Burgers with Basil Pesto – honestly, the best plant based burger ever, and it happens to be vegan. 🙂

What you need:

• Red lentils
• Breadcrumbs or stale bread
• Paprika
• Brioche buns
• Red onion
• Cheese of your choice (Mozzarella goes really well though)
• Basil
• Coriander
• Garlic powder
• Pumpkin seeds
• Olive oil salt and pepper to taste

Just a little disclaimer, the recipe makes 9 juicy lentil patties so if that’s too much for you, simply half the ingredients. As we’re a family of five, it’s perfect for us as we usually have 2-3 burgers left which we happily enjoy in the next couple of days for lunch. You can store them for no longer than 3 days in the fridge, in an airtight container. 

Here’s how to make these beautiful plant based Red Lentil Burgers with Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

• 400g red lentils, cooked and drained from any water
• 1tbsp paprika
• 1/2tbsp turmeric
• 2tsp garlic powder
• A bunch of fresh coriander, chopped, 
• 2 slices of stale bread, soaked in water or 100g breadcrumbs
• 9 brioche buns
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 200g mild Cheddar, grated or any cheese of your choice
• 1tbsp olive oil

For the Basil pesto

• A bunch of fresh basil
• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 1 garlic clove
• 1tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, combine the red lentils, seasoning, coriander and the bread. Make sure the consistency is smooth, if you need to, blitz the mixture for a minute. Shape the patties, they should be around 2cm thick and the diameter should be roughly as your Brioche buns. 

2. Cook in the air fryer for 17 minutes at 200. Alternatively, you can bake them in the oven for around 15 minutes at 200 or deep fry them.
3. To make the basil pesto – blitz all the ingredients together till smooth. 
4. Now, assemble the burgers. Cheese is optional, but if you go for it, melt it first – just add the desired quantity on your lentil burger patty and place in the oven for a couple of minutes until nice and gooey. 
5. Add the basil pesto on top and close with the brioche buns. If preferred, you can slightly toast them, but my kids like them as they are so I skipped that step. 
6. Serve with some oven baked chips with spicy mayo dip and some corn cobs for delicious and nutritious family dinner.

Enjoy!

I hope you guys love this recipe as much as we did. Stay tuned for more quick, easy and tasty recipes coming very soon. 

As the days are getting shorter and we’re well into September, it’s the perfect time to start with the heart-warming recipes. So next, I’ve got an amazing chilli con carne which is so comforting that there’s no person in the world that wouldn’t like it ( in my opinion) 🙂 Also, it comes with a variety of toppings so it’s kind of BYO which the kids really enjoy. Of course, lots of fresh chilli peppers for the grown ups. Make sure to look out for that scrumptious recipe.

Meanwhile, have a super tasty Tuesday. x