{recipe} spiced lentil vegan burgers + weekend shenans

Hellllllo beautiful people. I'm back with another veggie burger. Surprise, surprise.

But first, weekend shenanigans!

I so wish that weekends never had to end... Especially weekends with absolutely perfect weather. In Madrid, we are currently in the paradise temperatures in between summer and fall. We're talking low 70s during the day and low 60s at night. Absolutely delightful. We decided to spend this weekend exploring our neighborhood a bit. Once my roommate and I find a place we reallllly love, we tend to go there... again, and again, and again. There are so many great restaurants and bars nearby that we just kind of skip on by every weekend. We decided to make up a little tapas crawl of our own based on blog recommendations written by Spaniards. Fun was had. :) Even if we had to eat anchovies.... yuck.

Poor little anchovy's spine.

On Saturday, my roommate and I went to the modern art museum, Museo Reina Sofia, with a new friend. We spent a few hours in there cracking up at all of the "art." Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a good artistic effort, but some of the pieces on display were so wacky. We also got to see some... interesting... performance art take place. Um. We were giggling uncontrollably. 

Onion... on a wine bottle. Typical Reina Sofia display. :)

It was such a wonderful weekend! Unfortunately on Sunday I woke up with a throbbing in my mouth. My wisdom tooth decided to break through and is now causing some issues. I'm terrified to go to the dentist here but it definitely has to happen. Accepting all positive thoughts for that situation... eek!

Okay, back to the yummmmmy burger. Since I was feeling a bit too under the weather to get out and enjoy the beautiful day yesterday, I decided to cook. I was going to make lentil soup, but then I discovered this recipe and that idea went right out the window. These burgers are super filling and delicious. I definitely recommend you smother them with some sriracha aioli. nommmmmm.

And just because you are really great and actually read this entire post, you get a bonus recipe for baked steak fries! Woooo, go you! PS. Don't freak out if you don't have all of the right spices for this recipe, I adapted the spices from the original recipe to use what I had in my kitchen. Play around with your spices!

Spiced Lentil Vegan Burgers

recipe adapted from Food.com

Makes 6 regular sized burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup flour
• splash of water
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning (or favorite seasoning)
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Before you chop everything up, start to cook the lentils. Gently boil them in enough water to cover them by 2 inches, with no salt. They will take about 30 minutes to cook. Make sure you can mash them up a bit before you take them off of the heat. I had to add a little bit more water during the process until they got to the right consistency.
2. While lentils are cooking, dice the onion and grate the carrot into a big bowl.
3. Drain the cooked lentils and pour them into the bowl with the onion and carrot. Mash them a bit, but not too much, and add enough flour to the point where the three ingredients will stick together. I added the flour 1/4 cup at a time, and mixed it thoroughly. Add a splash of water if the flour isn't getting it to the right consistency.
4. Season the mix with the spices, salt, and pepper.
5. With your hands, form the burgers. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to a heated pan, then add the burgers. Leave them on for about 10 minutes on one side, then flip to cook for 5-7 minutes more on the other side.
6. Serve smothered with sriracha aioli (mayonnaise and sriracha mixed well), spinach, and tomatoes.

Baked Steak Fries:

One serving of fries

Ingredients:

• One small potato, rinsed and scrubbed, and cut into wedges
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450*F
2. Coat potato wedges with a bit of olive oil, salt, and paprika.
3. Put in oven for about 35 minutes or until at the right crispiness.
4. Serve with some mooooooore sriracha aioli... duh.

Bon appetite my lovely readers!

xx, Jen