Lentil Burgers Again

Again with the lentil burgers.....and I don't mean that in a bad way.  I enjoyed them unexpectedly much when I made them last autumn after my pastor's wife gave me a magazine that had the original recipe in it.  (Links to my first lentil post, Recipe; and my second, Gratitude.) In fact, I liked them so much that I kept thinking and thinking about them this week (maybe I just need more protein!) so I decided to start cooking when I woke up at 5 AM yesterday and couldn't get back to sleep.

Since I can't let well enough alone, I fiddled with the recipe again.  I honestly could not countenance adding 3/4 cup of olive oil last time, so I reduced it to 2/3 cup.  I felt even more strongly today, given that I am likely to pan fry these things in butter later, so I reduced that to 1/2 cup.  Time will tell whether the choice was the right one.

I chose different lentils--the little bitty ones.  Hey, I'm a longtime veggie girl, I've got more than one size lentil in the pantry!  And I really preferred the way these cooked up.

No fresh onion in the house at all.  Darn it.  However, my friend gave me the contents of her spice rack when she moved to Alabama and that included a great big unopened container of dehydrated onion.  I re-hydrated a half a cup in a cup of warm water and let it sit for 20 minutes.  The recipe calls for the onion to be pureed in the food processor, so I did that.  (Remembering while I did so that my very vintage processor was a gift from someone else who was generous with extras when she moved away.)  I also added about a cup of the cooked lentils to the onion to help the processor do its job better.  And that made a surprisingly nice difference to the overall texture of the burgers when I formed them--they cohered much better than the last batch.

Once again, the recipe cannot be trusted when it comes to the number of burgers.  It says (if I recall properly) 5 or 6.  I made 22 good-sized burgers, and I put the waxed paper lined cookie sheets right in the freezer; when the burgers are frozen hard, I will package them.  (The lovely Panko crumbs were also a gift from my friend's pantry, by the way.)

I had a tasty bowl of warm lentils with butter for breakfast, and I saved the drained lentil-water for use later in soup--really it tastes so good.  Nothing wasted.

And, once again, I am grateful.  I realize that I could not have gotten the lentil job done without the behind-the-scenes help of three people who were kind enough to share.  I wouldn't have the freezer either if another friend hadn't agreed to let me work-barter for it.  Truly, we never know how far the goodness spreads when we remember to bless others.  The littlest things can make a big difference.

I hope that you will be equally blessed today. 
Life really is good.