Vegan Mofo #7 - Celine and Joni’s Butternut Lentil Burgers...

Vegan Mofo #7 - Celine and Joni’s Butternut Lentil Burgers 

The Book - The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions
The Author - Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman
The Recipe - Butternut Lentil Burgers
Page #129
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - 45-60 minutes for roasted the Squash. And roughly 35 minutes to bake the patties once they’ve been formed. If you roast the squash the night before or in the morning the whole thing is super easy to throw together In about forty minutes.

I LOVE these burgers! I’ve had my eye on making them ever since I got this book just before Christmas last year. Something about them just sounded so amazing, that I couldn’t wait to try them. I know the photographs aren’t that visually impressive, sometimes it’s hard to make burgers look really dynamic but don’t let the boring photos fool you, these burgers are to die for!

This is definitely a burger recipe I’ll be coming back to again and again. I loved the texture and the flavor was out of this world incredible. I also really appreciate that these burgers are super easy to throw together, and that they use simple, fresh ingredients available to anyone. Many of them are pantry staples for most of us vegans. All their made of us butternut squash, red lentils, olive oil, sesame oil, salt, gram masala, tomato chutney, panko breadcrumbs and vital wheat gluten. However the recipe says for a gluten-free version you can remove the wheat gluten. I am not gluten-free but I’ve found I prefer VWG in smaller amounts and so I cut the amount of wheat gluten in half and added in more breadcrumbs to make up the difference. I also didn’t have - and subsequently couldn’t find - tomato chutney and so I used mango chutney instead which was absolutely delicious. Probably it adds a little bit of extra sweetness to the burgers but that’s alright with me. I also adjusted the gram masala - adding more - to suit my tastebuds. The result was a super scrumptious and yummy burger with full bodied flavor. I love the texture that the lentils and squash add, and I love the natural sweetness from the squash along with it’s natural almost buttery flavor. Overall the burger had a real nice subtle Indian flavor, with a bot of sweet and a hint of spice. I particularly liked the vague cinnamon scent and flavor courtesy of the gram masala.

Another great thing about these burgers if they’re versatile. Dress them up however you like with mustard, ketchup and vegan mayo, or a spicy sauce, or some extra chutney. Use tomatoes, onions, lettuce, sprouts, roasted peppers or spinach. Or you could shove them in a pita with some mashed curried cauliflower and peas. If you want to eat the burger without the bread these taste fantastic the next day on a bed of greens smeared with chutney and covered in sweet tomato slices.

There is so much yummy fun that you can have with these, so trust me when I say you must make them!