These spicy Vegan Lentil Burgers are made with red split lentils and are topped with the most delicious creamy vegan avocado sauce. Ready in under 20 minutes, these lentil patties great as burgers, lettuce wraps, or in a salad.
Optional: pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, and / or garlic powder
To serve
Lettuce wraps or buns, garnish such as lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced red onion, cilantro.
Instructions
Prepare the lentil burger patties:
In a small food processor, combine the cooked lentils, oats, lime juice, sriracha, salt, garlic powder, and paprika. Pulse several times to combine, stopping to scrape down the mixture, if needed.
Add the chopped cilantro leaves and chopped scallion. Pulse to combine - the mixture should be like a thick clay paste.
Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Use your hands to form 4 lentil patties. Tip: wet your hands in a bowl of water in between every patty, this prevents the lentils from sticking to your hands. Place the flour on a plate and dredge the lentil patties in flour on both sides.
Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet. Gently place the dredged lentil patties in the skillet and cook 2-3 minutes per side over medium heat, or until golden brown on each side.
Make the avocado sauce:
In a small food processor, combine all the ingredients for the avocado sauce and process until smooth - or leave it a little chunky if you prefer some texture! Serve the lentil burgers with avocado sauce.
Notes
Lentils: I prefer split red lentils for these burgers because they cook in less than 10 minutes and make a beautiful lentil burger that sticks together nicely. Try not to overcook your lentils. You can use any other lentils, but you might need to process the lentils longer in the food processor if using firmer lentils, such as whole green lentils.
1 tablespoon of vegan sriracha adds a little warm heat to these burgers but doesn't make them spicy. Double check whether your sriracha is vegan - the Huy Fong brand is actually not vegan because of the process of the sugar they use. Sky Valley is a vegan sriracha sauce you can use.
You can use ketchup instead, or skip this altogether. You might need to add a tablespoon more of lemon juice or water to help bind these burgers together.
Paprika: You can skip the paprika if you want, or use smoked paprika for a nice smoky flavor, or add a pinch of powdered cayenne pepper to increase the heat.
Don't skip the dredging step! To dredge, simple place the burgers in the flour, then flip over and place the other side in flour to add a light coating of flour. This really helps the burgers not stick to the pan. Use a gluten-free flour mix or cassava flour if you want to keep these burgers gluten-free, and make sure your oats are gluten-free too!
Avocado sauce: This makes a little extra avocado sauce. If you don't want to have any leftover, use only 2 tablespoons of vegan mayo (this will also give the sauce a richer avocado flavor... that's not a bad thing!)