FOR BOO..... Mi experience with brown lentil hamburgers:

The English version is for my good friend Boo, who dosen´t feel comfortable reading in spanish right now... but, she learn fast....

One regular day in the morning, watching television, I bump with one of those cooking programs just when the chef was offering the lentil burgers. What´s that? Lentil burgers? But the ones made of beef are so good! Anyhow, now that my hormones are making me think in healthier food, and I got caught by the chef´s sympathy, I got up really fast and looked for a pen and a piece of paper so I could write every detail of that recipe so I could taste such dish; of course! I was fighting with my meat-eating angel!

While the chef was doing her thing in front of the cameras, I was still thinking about the delicious, juicy ground beef burgers with lettuce, tomato, onion, sauces y all the other seasonings that a burger should have. Meanwhile the healthy angel kept on repeating to me: “sounds good”, “those are healthy”, and “mmmm they come with yogurt sauce”, etc… Well, what can I tell you? I wrote down the details and decided to embark on this culinary adventure.

The test day came, and guess what! I didn´t have any brown lentils and didn´t feel like going out to buy some, so I decided to make them with “green lentils” hahaha, similar to the brown lentils, but green! I started cooking the green lentils with sweet pepper, onion, garlic, bay leaf…. Delicious! But then I realized that I was going to eat green burgers hahaha… I had already decided to betray the cows, so I continued with what I was doing, hoping not to die in the attempt.

Ok, with the green lentils already cooked I took a look at the recipe: 2 cups of cooked and drained brown lentils, ¼ cup of flour (although I had to use more than that), 1 cup of grind bread, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of chopped onion (didn´t understand what for! But I put them anyway), 2 tablespoons of coriander, 1 beaten egg, Salt and black pepper (to taste).

I put all of these in the blender until a paste was formed. With these paste I started making the burgers. It was very difficult to give shape and to remove from my hands the sticky paste, but… didn´t lose my patience…By adding more flour and grind bread, the burgers got a good firm shape; I accomplished that by getting my hands all covered up with flour. I started putting the “hamburgers” (that thanks to the sweet pepper end up red) in the frying pan with just a little oil, put the lid on and let them cook well (turning them around frequently). I must confess that my burgers were, fortunately, very thin because they are pretty filling.

Furthermore, I was counting with the hamburger bread with sesame, which I spread with plain yogurt and decorated with basil and mint as the wonderful girl had said. Then I put on the thin lentil meat, well cooked, and on top of it a layer of mushrooms that had been prepared with onion, garlic, salt and black pepper in a frying pan. Finally, I put on the other piece of bread on top and surprise! A dish I assure you was perfect!

Really good stuff! An adventure that ended up pretty well! I recommend it…

PD: Thans for my beautiful daugther Andrea, for help me with my poor English.