Feb 4, 2011

Its Raining Burgers

If french fries are perfect finger foods, nothing but burgers are perfect 'all-hands' food. Eating a burger puts a person in a position of power. You have the power. To hold the whole burger in your hand, squeeze it together and take a big powerful bite of it. And of course lick the ketchup that drools out of your mouth onto your chin in little drops. Forking a salad seems so lame right now.


Such a burger makes my free spirit truly happy. But, the wife and mom in me wants a few more points on the health scale when it comes to a burger. More power. More protein. That's what is many times missing in a potato laden veggie burger patty. And how to achieve that? Make it. Simple. I've already blogged about a version of a homemade veggie patty prepared with fresh sprouts and veggies. Check it out here.

This time I'm going all lentil loony on my patty. This is a barley and bean soup mix that I bought from Henry's a little while ago. I use this often to make a whole and hearty soup using my slow cooker. I even have pics- will post that soon.  But, this time I was looking for lentils to add to my burgers and thought this would work perfect. The mom and wife in me was finally happy. 


Take about 1 1/2 cups of the barley and bean mix and soak for about 4-5 hrs. Then, open cook the beans in boiling water until they turn soft. They will turn soft in about 10 mins. Some of the big beans might still be a little bite able crunchy like that of roasted peanuts. But, they taste great and provide a nice bite to the burger.


While that is boiling, chop up all of your favorite veggies to go inside the patty. I added all the veggies here except broccoli and mushrooms inside the patty. These two went on top - you'll see.


Once the beans is cooked, strain away all the water. You can use that water to cook rice or use in anything else that you would normally add water to. I'm sure it has the vitamins in there.


Also, boil a couple of medium sized potatoes and mash them. Add the cooked beans and potatoes to a big mixing bowl.


Add the rest of the veggies. I added shredded carrots, finely cut green beans, chopped onions and corn kernels.

Then, add the following -
Salt - to taste
Paprika or Red chilli powder - about 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp


Mix everything well. Add a little bread crumbs to absorb the remaining moisture and form a cohesive ball.


Now comes the burger making part. Take small balls of the patty, roll them in your hands and flatten them to make little burgers. Keep about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs ready on the side for dipping.

Use a wide shallow pan and fill enough oil just to cover the bottom. You can always deep fry the burgers. This I feel is slightly healthier than that. But, again, baking these would be the healthiest option to do. But I did not do that - don't judge me though. I had no time really to bake for about 25-30 mins. My 2 customers had already asked me if dinner was ready like 5 times!


Shallow fry each side of the patty for about 3-4 mins. The advantage of using a pan like this one is that you can move the patty to the side walls and that heat also helps to cook the sides without much oil.


These are almost done. Golden and perfect.


Drain all the excess oil on a rack.


Now, comes the fun part. Assembly. 

There are so many ways you can assemble this burger for your family. I add a thin layer of mayo on the buns and then place a piece of the patty and then top with whatever the heart desires.

It could be a traditional tomato-lettuce-carrot strips burger.


Or a burger topped with sauteed mushrooms and broccoli. (by far my favorite!)


Or just topped with some grilled pineapple and sauteed jalapenos. (TH's favorite)


Or just a hearty double cheese double patty doused on the top with ketchup!


Or an indianized version made with green mint chutney and tomatoes and carrots.


In all this excitement, I totally forgot to make one of my favorite versions with avocados. But, thankfully had leftovers and made some for lunch the next day.


So, who said burgers have to be eaten one way? And when you make burgers for dinner, just mix it up so everyone gets to taste something new in each burger.


My family was totally ready to pounce on this but wait we all want to try multiple things. How do we do that?


Perfect. I have 30 secs left to take a picture of this.


Since this qualifies and I also just saw this 'My Legume Love Affair 32' event on Sandhya's Kitchen, I'm going to send this across to her and also to Susan's event page. Hope you gals like it!

Enjoy. Peace Out.

27 comments:

  1. Love it! Absolutely scrumptious burgers!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The burgers look legend…..ary
    Loved the different toppings u presented:-0
    Its like looking at a menu:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are wah, its absolutely raining burgers on your screen Anu,Looks just awesome...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I lvu the pattie ingredients, looks healthy n yum

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice post Anu. Love the different version of burgers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OMG that looks scrumptious... I am seriously drooling seeing all the burgers.. I always do soup with that whole all lentils and beans. For burger i either use bean or channa for pattie.. this sounds very very interesting anu.. Its really really awesome.. before going to bed badly craving for this Anu.. Hope kutty enjoyed as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wouldlove to grab a bite from each one! Love the fillings in the tikia for the burger.

    ReplyDelete
  8. drooling over your burgers...what variety and so healthy. Yummmy!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. wonderfull assortment of burger variations ... lovely idea to make so many burger styles in one go and make people wonder over their next burger bite !! Lovely clicks

    Super Yummy Recipes

    ReplyDelete
  10. Healthy Burger...too gud presentation...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Simply great Anu! I salute your patience....I wouldn't have waited those 30 secs:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hallelujah!!! Pineapple and jalapenos topped on burger - "Oh! Yum!" - I am sure those must truly be finger licking good. Lavanya

    ReplyDelete
  13. wow...yum n delicious...simply amazing and healthy burgers...

    ReplyDelete
  14. amazing!! you sure do know how to add zing to veggies....simply superb!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Seriously am hungry now, soooo healthy and damn cute looking burgers..

    ReplyDelete
  16. Aah.. Lovely and drool worthy!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow....looks so yummy.....you are excellent with whatever you do !!! love being your representative in Sacramento !!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love how you are playing around with different combos here. A platter of those burgers would be perfect for my dinner tonight, thank you.
    But seriously, you think there is a way I could sue you for doing this to me so often?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi,

    I want to try this and was wondering if you can help me with the ingredients.

    Can you please tell me what all beans you have in there and the proportion of Barley to beans ?

    Many thanks in advance.

    Mala

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Mala,

    This was a premixed soup mix that I picked up from a store called Henry's. I'm not sure of the proportion. But if you are mixing ingredients, probably equal ratio of all ingredients would be a good mix.

    Thanks for trying this - let me know how you like it!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks a lot Anu for the reply.

    Yes I am going to try to it soon and I will keep you posted.

    Have a great day !

    Mala

    ReplyDelete
  22. best ever post of urs. I have bookmarked it and read it over n ver just to see the awe of how good u ve presented them :) Cheers.. gonna make this today!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wow, absolutely appetizing and inviting pics. The burgers must taste equally good. Now I just need to figure all those beans used. Thanks......keep inventing

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by! Let me know what you think.