Since I originally tried them, these excellent patties have undergone a number of modifications. I’ve seasoned them with various soup mixes and added chopped nuts for texture. They taste good cooked in a mushroom sauce for a special dinner or with a tomato sauce topping. The way a hamburger should be prepared is with lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo, ketchup, and alfalfa sprouts on a bun or delicious homemade bread, in my opinion.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry brown lentils
- 2 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 cup wheat and barley nugget cereal (e.g. Grape-Nuts™)
- 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
- ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Instructions
- Place lentils and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain.
- In a large bowl, mix together the cooked lentils, milk, wheat and barley cereal, eggs and walnuts. Season with onion soup mix and poultry seasoning. Mix well using your hands, as the mixture will be very thick. Let stand for 30 minutes, or refrigerate overnight.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out balls of the lentil mixture. Drop the scoops into bread crumbs, and coat while flattening into patties. Fry burgers in the hot skillet until nicely browned on both sides, about 5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the patties.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 289 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 38 g |
| Cholesterol | 47 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 683 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
“Medium” heat is subjective… these are not good if burnt like beef patties would be, so err on the side of lower heat
I am on a low sodium diet and a moderate lowoxalate diet. I am always looking for things using lentils that have some texture and flavor, and this totally fit the bill. However, I did make my own dry onion soup mix, and that is where most of the flavor comes from. The grapenuts are such a good idea! I will replace the walnuts with something more low oxalate next time, but the grapenuts would be difficult to replace… they add such a lovely toothy crunch. Genius idea.
I made a few changes and I split up the batch. From the beginning, I didn’t have poultry seasoning so I used grill mates seasoning in roasted garlic and herb and they were very good. When I cooked the second half I added turkey bacon bits to the pattys and they were phenomenal. I also melted muenster cheese on two of the patties in the first batch. I will make these again for sure! Thank for posting your recipe…
This recipe has been part of our monthly recipe circulation for years and the whole family loves it, from picky husband to my 8-year old to my 2-year old. The recipe is perfect as-is. My pet peeve is people rating the recipe as they have changed it. Grrr. However, I have occasionally made changes based on mistakes and poor planning/emergency substitutions. It is also good with ranch dressing mix instead of onion soup mix. It is also fine with the breadcrumbs mixed in rather than as a coating. I made it this way for over a year before I re-read the recipe and discovered it was a coating. They are even better made with the breadcrumbs used as directed! 🙂
This was extremely frustrating to make. The patties were SO crumbly, and there is absolutely no way you could roll them in the bread crumbs while shaping them into patties as the recipe suggests. I don’t know if I messed something up or what. It got somewhat better as I went and squeezed as much moisture as possible out of the patties, but even then most of them broke into several pieces. Also I was thinking these would be a fairly healthy meal, but they were REALLY salty and soaked up a TON of oil. We ate them with tomato sauce and the flavor was okay, but if I’m going to have that much fat and salt I might as well eat french fries. Probably will not make again.
Yum! Great weekday dinner for kiddies; I made them into smaller patties and baked at 375* for about 8-10 minutes each side on parchment paper. Didn’t have cereal so I used 1/2 cup oats, added some shredded cheese, 1/2 tsp cumin, garlic powder, chicken consomme, a little diced red onion and some breadcrumbs to the mixture. Refrigerated before shaping. I love the texture of the lentils… served with a horseradish-dill sauce I happened to have… even my one year old was into it!
Excellent on a whole wheat bun with bread and butter pickles and some lettuce. Definitely refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour after making this or they will be too soft and fall apart.
Made recipe as written. Loved the walnuts and grape nut cereal in it. The onion soup mix and poultry seasoning not so much. When I eat something that looks like a hamburger, poultry seasoning throws me off – but that’s just probably me. Next time will skip the mix and seasoning, use one egg and grate a small onion. Perhaps some garlic too. They reheat well in microwave in covered container with a touch of water or chicken stock. Will definitely make again with the seasoning changes.
We really enjoyed this recipe! Only change that I made was to cook them on our George Foreman Grill. Cooks in less than half the time and no ‘fried’ smell in the house. DEFINITELY a keeper!
Great recipe! I served on whole wheat pocket bread (need a whole wheat to complete the protein) and topped with lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, cucumbers, lemon juice and olive oil. Cumin and cayenne are also nice additions before cooking the patties.
My Aunt gave me a recipe book from 1950 with this basic recipe in it. I have used it all these years. It has a lovely taste and great crunch to it.
This is a very good fritata. I am always surprised on this site how many people say: Very good but I changed it, I enjoyed it… but changed it. If you like the recipe, say so. If you changed it, then you aren’t rating the recipe, you are submitting a new recipe.
I’ve made this several times since I discovered it. We have triplet teens and both boys are strict vegetarians — the rest of us eat only chicken/fish. We all consider the lentil burgers a genuine treat. I have used a small electric grinder to pulverize almonds (raw) instead of walnuts. I’ve also used cashew (raw or roasted with sea salt). Both are good. It’s a great recipe to vary and it still comes out well. They can be “fragile” to handle when flattening into patties in bread crumbs and then put in the skillet. But they always turn out beautifully. We eat them like burgers, on thing whole wheat buns. Thanks, Susanne, and all those who comment.
Dry, and crumbly–don’t make again!
Just OK as is. Make sure they are pressed very flat.
WAY too salty. I tried to fix it by adding extra bread crumbs and oatmeal. Now it was too dry…added this and that… Salt , wheat & frying….what was I thinking?
I did change it a bit, and it was delish! I am on a no/low/sodium diet with low carbs, so I omitted the onion soup mix. I boiled the lentils with crushed tomatoes and basil added to the water, along with smoked paprika, garlic, onion, black pepper, dried chives, oregano and cayenne pepper sauce. I subbed oatmeal for the grape nuts. I also omitted the bread crumbs and nuts. I blended 1 red bell pepper, 1 red onion, mushrooms and a handful of baby carrots in a cuisinart, and added that to the cooked lentils and oatmeal. Subbed egg whites. Grilled on a flat top grill….amazing, my whole family raved. I topped mine with avocado and tomato, but others were putting it on a bun with all the fixing of a traditional burger. Great base recipe that one can build on to suit their own needs! Thank you!
Very tasty! I had never had lentils before (to my knowledge), but I’m trying to eat better and found this recipe. I didn’t add walnuts. I couldn’t find dry brown lentils at the store, but found the canned version (which would be easier because you don’t have to do the first step). However, I noticed the texture of the mixture didn’t hold up well and was falling apart and making a mess. So I added and extra egg (total of 3), which did the trick! It was delicious! I made a lettuce wrapped burger with onion, tomato, avocado, ketchup, and Dijon mustard. I would definitely make this again. My boyfriend and our roommate, who are both not keen on healthier food options, loved it!
awful texture. the patties separated but the taste was pleasing so I just used it as a stir fried vegetable.
Never actually had lentil burgers work before! Great recipe as is, or I made a few tweaks: used oats instead of cereal. almond milk, replaced onion soup mix with my own seasoning, pecans instead of walnuts, and put the bread crumb into the mix instead. My 3 yr. old even liked it!
Another variation on a great recipe is to cook the lentils in chicken stock, which gives them great flavor, mix the cooked lentils with 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup walnut, add a pinch of salt, and some chili flakes and pepper, two instead of three eggs, mix well, and then scoop out and dip patties in bread crumbs, and fry. Serve with yogurt sauce (yogurt, garlic, mint) and serve in warmed tortilla.