Lentil Beet Burgers with Green Goddess Sauce (2024)

These Lentil Beet Burgers are vegan, gluten free, loaded with fiber and nutrients, plus they taste amazing! We're serving them sans bun with a zippy sunflower seed green goddess sauce to make them even better.

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Whenever my friend Nina travels home from Hawaii, we always try to find some time to cook together. Usually she comes back at the end of summer, but this year she came in early June, and even though her trip was brief, we still managed to sneak a day in the kitchen.

Since Nina normally comes home in August, we're usually overloaded with our favorite vegetables like Jersey corn and tomatoes. But this year, since she was here so early in the season, we had to change up our usual plan of action. To make matters slightly more challenging, Nina, who once introduced me to the most amazing bacon studded potato salad (recipe coming soon!), recently announced that she's gone vegan. Or, well, "mostly vegan," as she'll tell you. In fact, one of the main reasons shehad to cut her stay shortis because she recently opened up her own little business at a local Hawaiian co-op called Nina Cucina, selling locally sourced, homemade plant-based food.

Our day started off with a tour of my garden, where we picked beets, carrots, celery, herbs and tons of arugula. We decided to improvise onfew different plant based salads: one with farro, one with lentils and one with arugula (which, I'm STILL swimming in, by the way). In addition, I showed her how to make these beet burgers, and she showed me how to make this sunflower seed green goddess sauce. It all worked together really well, and it looked even better on a plate.

When I posted a picture of said plate on Instagram, I was flooded with recipe requests. Way more than usual.I fully expect my friends to askmefor ice cream cake and fried cheese recipes, but I have to say, I was surprised to see how many people were begging for this one. It feltgood to know there's such a high demand for sustainable, plant-based recipes in this community. and it encouraged me not only to post this one on my blog, but to post more plant based meals moving forward. After all, we do eat quite a few of them in this house. But lets not get carried away. We still love meat (and fish and eggs and ice cream), and have no plans to stop eating it (in moderation!) any time soon.

I can make these beet burgers in my sleep, thanks to an amazing family I used toprepare meals for every week when I worked as a personal chef. Their diet was completely vegan and gluten free, and these were in heavy rotation on their menus. And it was for good reason:they're packed with nutrition, they're freezer friendly,they're filling and totally delicious.

These lentil beet burgers are hearty, earthy and pack a nice umami punch. I call them "burgers" because "patties" just doesn't sound as nice, but the idea of putting them on a bun is odd to me. You certainly could, but I just don't see why you'd want to. With their bright pink center and crispy browned exterior, they mimic the appearance of an actual beef burger, and would totally look the part on a bun. But they're a bit starchy - with all the oats and lentils and what not - and I think throwing bread into the mix would just be overkill.Plus, I feel that if you're going to eatsomething this healthy, should probably just go all-in.

That's where this lovely little pale green condiment comes into play. Nina soaked sunflower seeds overnight and brought them over to make her favorite green goddess dressing. We had a ton of carrots from my garden, so she opted to make it with carrot tops in lieu of the usual herbs. It tasted good, but carrot tops have a rough texture, and my inferior blender struggled to fully break them down. So the end result was good, but lacked the super smooth texture she was used to. This time around, I made it with a wholebunch of fresh herbs instead, andit tasted even better.

This sauce is rich, smooth and tangy, which is amazing when you consider the ingredients. Soaking sunflower seeds overnight not only makes them easier to digest, it also makes them soft enough to beblended intocreamy sauces and dressings like this one. I kept it thick to use more like a spread, but it can be thinned out with more water and/or lemon juice to make a lovely salad dressing.

It will keep in the fridge for about a week or so, maybe even longer depending. The fresh herbs will eventually start to turn brown, and even though it will still taste fine, it's just not the same without thevibrantgreen hue. The burgers, however, will also last about a week in the fridge, but they freeze really well, too. I love keeping these on hand for a quick, healthy andsatisfyinglunch. They reheat beautifully in the toaster oven straight out of the freezer. When Idon't have any green goddess dressing lying around, Ilike todouse them in hot sauce instead.

Now that it's August, I'm cooking up all the tomatoes, corn, zucchini, eggplant and cucumbers I can get my hands on, while patiently waiting for the figs to arrive. I miss having Neen around to brainstorm new recipe ideas, to teach me all about photography(did I mention she's a pro??), and to generally encourage me to "get weird," both in and out of the kitchen. But atleast now every time I make this recipe, I think about our fun, wine-fueled day in the kitchen last June, and wonder what we'll make together the next time... which hopefully, maybe, possibly (fingers crossed!) will go down in Hawaii.

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