Roasted Beet & Sweet Potato Lentil Burger

Once upon a time I went to a place called heaven and it came in the form of a restaurant called Royale Eatery and in a place called Capetown, South Africa. It had amazing smells, was located in the middle of the city, the staff was awesome, but best of all it had about 50 different varieties of veggie burgers on the menu (my personal dream come true). The veggie burgers were GIANT, delicious and freshly made!!  As my tastebuds fondly dream about at my time spent there, I tried to make my own giant and healthy veggie burger. The one I made is hearty, healthy and pretty easy to make – although there may be a lot of steps involved, the steps themselves are easy and fool proof!

Roasted Beet & Sweet Potato Lentil Burger
Yield: 3-4 patties

• 1 small beet*
• i small sweet potato
• 1 small yellow onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup french lentils, cooked
• 1 cup short grain brown rice, cooked
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tspn cumin seeds
• 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1/2 tspn black pepper
• Juice from 1/4 lime
• 4 tspn grapeseed oil

*I used golden beets, but red beets will work just as well

Method

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the sweet potato and beet on wax paper or a silpat sheet and bake for about 45 minutes. After cooling, peel the beet and sweet potato and slice each one.

Heat the grapeseed oil and cumin seeds over medium heat in a skillet. After a couple of minutes add in the sliced onions, beets and sweet potatoes, walnuts and garlic clove. After another couple of minutes, add in the salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Cook until the vegetables begin to brown (about 7-8 minutes).

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and mix for about a minute (enough so that it remains a bit chunky). Then transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the cooked lentils.

Add the brown rice and egg into the food processor and mix until well blended.

Transfer the rice/egg mixture to the vegetable/lentil mixture, add in the lime juice and mix well. Using your hands, form the mixture into patties.

Heat 1 tspn grapeseed oil over medium heat in a frying pan. After the frying pan is heated, reduce the heat to medium-low and add in a patty. Cover the frying pan and let cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the patty and let cook uncovered for another 15 minutes. Repeat this process for the remaining mixture. Remove from frying pan and add on the following toppings.

Topping suggestions: Diced avocado and tomato with coarse grain mustard or plain yogurt mixed with diced tomatoes and cucumbers

Enjoy!