These easy healthy Vegan Lentil Burgers are a hearty meal the whole family will love! They can be baked, grilled, or fried.
These healthy Vegan Lentil Burgers are hearty and full of flavor! They can be baked, fried, or grilled.
You can also freeze the cooked burgers and reheat them. It's nice to have extras for when you don't feel like cooking.
Serve them with Spicy Baked French Fries or Homemade Tater Tots.
If you like spicy food, try my Vegan Nacho Burger recipe.
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🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. To see the full list of ingredients with measurements and instructions, see the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Lentils: I used canned brown lentils. You can use another type of lentil or another type of bean.
- Onions and carrots: Add flavor.
- Olive oil: To cook the onions. Adds flavor.
- Garlic: Adds a pungent flavor.
- Rolled oats: Binds the lentil patties together.
- Sunflower seeds: Adds a mild nutty flavor. You could any type of seeds or nuts.
- Cumin and cayenne pepper: Add warm and spicy flavors.
- Tamari: Adds an umami flavor. I use low sodium gluten free tamari because I like to control the amount of salt.
- Nutritional yeast: Adds a cheesy flavor.
- Salt and pepper: Enhances flavors and adds flavor.
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🔪 Instructions
Step 1: Add onions and carrots to a skillet. Cook until onions are translucent and carrots are tender.
Step 2: Add garlic and cook 30 seconds longer.
Step 3: In a food processor combine the onions, carrots, and garlic with rolled oats, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, and spices. Blend and refrigerate for at least an hour. The patties will be easier to form.
Step 4: Form into patties and bake, fry, or grill.
Serve with your favorite toppings and condiments. I've included roasted garlic mayo in the recipe. It pairs nicely with the veggie burgers and it's really easy to make.
💭 Tips
- If you're serving kiddos, you may want to start with less spices and taste the mixture. I don't think they are very spicy, but then I like spicy foods.
- After mixing the ingredients, refrigerate so that you can form patties more easily.
- Bake the veggie burgers until they are browned. Test them to see if they are cooked to your liking. Depending upon the size of your burgers, they'll need about 40 minutes or so to bake. I got 4 burgers out of the recipe, so they were a pretty good size.
- You can also grill or fry these veggie burgers. I suggest flattening them first so that they cook evenly. You may want to make them smaller then because once you flatten them they will be too big for a bun.
🥡 Storage
This vegan lentil burger recipe will last about 5 days in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer. You can make the mixture a couple of days before grilling if need be. I ended up doing that because grilling conditions weren't optimal for a couple of days.
❄️ Can I Freeze These?
Yes! Cook veggie burgers per instructions and let cool on a baking sheet. Place cooled burgers in a freezer safe zip lock bag.
♨️ Reheating
Bake or microwave them straight from the freezer. For baking, they only need about 20 minutes at 400°.
🥑 Toppings
In addition to or in place of the roasted garlic mayo:
- Plain vegan mayo
- Vegan chipotle mayo
- Lettuce
- Onion
- Tomato
- Vegan sour cream
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Pickles
- Sliced avocado
- Guacamole
- Salsa (restaurant style) or salsa fresca
- Mushrooms
- Caramelized onions
- Roasted veggies
- Sugar Free Pickled Onions and Peppers
- Hot sauce
- Sliced avocado
- Cilantro
- Vegan cheese
🎥 Video
These hearty vegan burgers can be eaten on a bed of lettuce, by themselves, or in a bun.
These Lentil Burgers were originally published on July 1, 2015. I've redone the recipe with new photos, a video, and a couple of changes to the recipe.
*Don't forget to come back and leave your feedback and star rating.
📋 Recipe
Vegan Lentil Burgers
Equipment
Ingredients
Lentil Burgers
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1 carrot (½ cup chopped)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 15 oz. can lentils
- 1 cup gluten free rolled oats
- ½ cup sunflower seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon low sodium gluten free tamari
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- Salt and pepper
- 4 buns - I used millet and chia
Roasted Garlic Mayo (optional)
- 2 heads garlic
- ½ cup vegan mayo - I used Vegenaise
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ᵒ.
Lentil Burgers
- Add olive oil to a hot pan over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and sauté until onions are translucent and carrots are tender. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds longer.
- Put onions and carrots along with the rest of ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Put the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. This will help to form the patties easier.
- Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, then flip and bake for another 20 minutes. You could also fry or grill them, just flatten them down first so that they cook evenly. You may also want to make them smaller so they fit in a bun.
Roasted Garlic Mayo
- Slice about ½" off the top of a head of garlic (the pointy end), exposing the cloves, and leaving the skin on. Put the garlic in aluminum foil and drizzle with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Repeat with the other head. Cover the garlic with the aluminum foil.
- Roast for 40 minutes at 400° until tender. Let sit until cool.
- With a fork, mash garlic. Add vegan mayo and mix well.
Notes
Nutrition
*Note: Nutrition information should be considered an estimate only. Different nutrition calculators give you different results.
Willow Moon says
It reminds me of falafel, mainly because of the taste, but also the texture. Definitely different than a lot of store bought veggie burgers!
1stopforeverything says
Awesome recipe
Fabiola says
I love lentils! and this recipe is perfect for a veggie burger 🙂 I am going to try this the next time I make some. How is the baked texture different from the fried version?
Willow Moon says
I prefer baking them because they get crispier on the outside. If you decide to fry them, just don't make them as thick as the one I made. It will get crispy with enough oil, just make it thinner so it cooks all the way through.
footnotes and finds says
yum! these look delicious and great cause they are gluten free!