Lentil-Barley Patties of PERFECTION with Chili-Mayo

Lentils are the best friend of a healthy-eater. A member of the legume family, these are inexpensive, easy to cook, and high in iron, protein, and fiber. Lentils have been a staple in the human diet for thousands of years and, when paired with a whole grain, make a complete protein. Enter in our whole grain of choice: barley. Also inexpensive and easy to cook. It also boasts several nutritional benefits, like eight essential amino acids, and high fiber content thanks to its whole-grain status. When I found a recipe using both of these pantry staples, I could barely contain my glee. In fact, all the ingredients (except for the pita bread) were pantry staples- score! I changed the recipe to suit my tastes and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say: these were delicious. Occasionally, Jerry and I buy veggie burgers for our packed lunches, but after making and eating these, those veggie burgers became completely unappealing. When I'm feeling ambitious I may try to make these with more flavor ingredients (think: Thai-style, Mexican-Style, BBQ- style, Curry-style, etc) and then maybe we can nix our frozen veggie patty habit. 

Recipe Origin:

My interpretation of a Cooking Light Magazine Recipe: Lentil-Barley Burgers with Fiery Fruit Salsa

Serves:

2 Healthy Appetites/ 4 Smaller Appetites (You should know, Jerry ate 4 of these and I ate 2 1/2 in one meal.  Then again, we both are champions at eating).

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 dry lentils
• cooking spray
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1-2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, divided
• 3/4 cup cooked pearl barley
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• black pepper
• 1 egg
• whole wheat pita bread
• ground fresh chili paste (usually found near the Sriracha) you could substitue Sriracha or any type of hotsauce you like
• fat-free mayo (I love Smart Balance Mayo)
• bunch of cilantro

Cooking:

1. Preheat oven to 400°

2. Ok, first things first: the barley. There are a few options for saving time when making these burgers, since pearl barley typically takes up to an hour to cook. You can either cook it ahead of time (like the night before, when you are making dinner, just put it in the fridge when it is done), or pre-soak your barley to cut down on cooking time. I opted for the second choice, as I forgot to cook it the night before, oops. I put my barley in a bowl the morning I was supposed to cook these burgers with at least twice the amount of water. It worked well, as the cooking time of the barley actually matched the time of the lentils! You simply have to put the barley in a small sauce pan with 3 times the amount of liquid, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until tender.

3. Once you have your barley situation figured out, place the lentils and water in a small saucepan  and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer, covering, for about 25 minutes, or until tender.

4. Separate the lentils from any remaining cooking liquid (with a slotted spoon or strainer). Take out about half of the lentils and put in a food processor (a mini chopper works great!). When they are smooth, put the whole lentils and the processed lentils in a large bowl. 

5. Heat a large skillet over med-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add the shredded carrots and onion and cook until tender (about 5 minutes). Stir to prevent sticking (ahem...and burning). Add the garlic and cook for about a minute before adding the tomato paste, cumin, Italian seasoning, chili powder, crushed red pepper, and 1/8 tsp sea salt. Cook another minute. This was sort-of an awkward task as the tomato paste is hard to mix in. But just give it your best.

6. Add the skillet ingredients to your lentils. Then add the barley, parsley, egg, breadcrumbs, and black pepper. If needed, add the remaining 1/8 tsp sea salt. Mix well. In order to easily form your patties, the mixture should cool and therefore stiffen. Stick in your freezer for about 10 or 15 minutes. It should do the trick.

7. When the mixture has cooled and firmed-up. Take out a cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray. Form your patties (mine were about 3 1/2 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick, though I'll admit I wasn't very uniform). It should make about 8 patties (I had seven, but I did make a couple of big ones). Put the patties on the cookie sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are looking a little toasty. You can always do my trick of 2 minutes under the broiler to speed things up, and set the smoke detector off (at least we know the battery is good).

Un-baked...

Baked!

8. Making the chili-mayo is not an exact measurement. It depends on your personal tastes. I put about 1 1/2 teaspoons of fresh ground chili paste and mixed it with about 2 Tbsp of fat-free mayo, to make a moderately spicy mayo. If you don't like it very spicy, put in less fresh ground chili paste, or if you don't like mayo, just go with some fresh ground chili paste by itself. I'm guessing most condiments would be tasty with these patties, so experiment!

9. Split your pita bread into two-halves, or two pockets. Spread a little of the chili-mayo inside your pitas, shove a little cilantro in there, and finally 1, or 1/2 of one of your patties, in each pita pocket. 

10. Enjoy! Then, have seconds.

Notes:

• The original recipe said to put the mixture in the fridge for an hour. However, this was not an option for our household ("Carly, when is dinner going to be ready? I'm hungry..." & sounds of my own growling stomach). So, I made some room in the freezer and crossed my fingers. It worked great! In fact, the mixture was fairly stiff to begin with.
• They suggest pan-frying the patties and opted not to for a few good reasons. First, pan-frying in oil is not that bad, but it is worse than baking and if you use your broiler, you still get that delightful crispiness that you would from pan-frying. Second: Pan-frying is more hands-on and therefore time consuming for me. Here's why: with pan-frying, you have to stand there and watch it, flip it, etc., which doesn't help with multi-tasking efforts, like tidying up, unloading the dishwasher, making your mayo, checking Facebook, or catching up on emails. And my third and final reason: With baking, they are all cooked and ready TOGETHER, so you aren't letting some cool, or feeding your family before you can sit down with them since you have to finish the last batch. You might want to try pan-frying...but if mine came out this delicious with baking them...
• The recipe also called for additional egg whites, I'm guessing to help the patties bind together. Not really necessary. I hate the thought of wasting the yellows of eggs, so whenever a recipe calls for egg whites, I just throw the whole thing in. 
• In case you haven't noticed from reading the recipes in my blog, I kind of like cilantro. Actually, I love it. If you don't: just put something green in there! I brought the remaining 1/2 patty for my lunch the next day and put some baby arugula on it and it was great. 
• Use pearl barley that you have to cook for a while. I thought about using quick-barley, but then you lose a lot of the texture and nuttiness.
• These burgers would be great to freeze (which I plan to do). Just layer with wax paper and put in a air-tight container.
• I plan to add 1/4 cup of flax seeds to this next time I make it. They are highly nutritious little seeds that will make these patties just that much healthier. I'll let you know how it goes.
• A word on my fresh ground chili paste of choice: I buy Sambal Olek with the rooster on it with a green top. It is made by the same wonderful people that bring you Sriracha, and it too is wonderful. Much like Sriracha, you can put it on everything and everything tastes better with it. Buy some. 

So, there you have it. A new recipe that both my husband and I couldn't help but say, "Oh, they are SOOOOOOOO good!" between bites. Give 'em a try and let me know if you come to the same conclusion!

-Carly