Lentil Black Rice Veggie Burgers

I finally posted the concoction! :D And it came out pretty awesome. Better yet, I did this without a food processor. You need 1 cup of veggies, your choice, I did it with the traditional veggie burger fare and they're also what I had on hand that I like. Either way, the veggies must be very, very finely diced/shredded unless you use something naturally small like peas and corn. I used regular brown lentils, but red lentils, Indian lentils, or a varietal mix would probably be great. Black rice is found in most Asian grocery stores. These veggie burgers are time-consuming to make, but well worth it for the rich and nutty taste, creamy gooey texture, and the spicy kick that sneaks up on you. You can probably use a food processor too, but I didn't feel like cleaning it-- so I guess just pulse a few minutes until just about completely pureed.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 burgers

Ingredients

• BASE

• 4  cups water (divided into 2 cups each)
• 1  cup lentils (DO NOT SOAK AHEAD OF TIME!)
• 1  cup black rice
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1  tablespoon olive oil

• FORMING STAGE

• 3⁄4 cup flour
• 1  teaspoon  minced garlic (2 cloves, mashed and minced but I use the liquidy stuff)
• 1  teaspoon kosher salt (or sea salt)
• 2  teaspoons tahini

• DRY SEASONING

• 3⁄4 teaspoon paprika
• 1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1⁄4 teaspoon mustard (dry powdered mustard, not wet)
• 1  dash oregano

• VEGGIES

• 1⁄4 cup peas
• 1⁄4 cup carrot
• 1⁄4 cup broccoli (I used the very fine chopped broccoli from the freezer section, florets are too big)
• 1⁄4 cup corn

• THROW IN AT THE END

• 1⁄2 cup flour

Directions

1. Be ready for some simultaneous burner action! Get two saucepans ready with the 4 cups of water, 2 cups in each.
2. Put the 1/4 tsp table salt in the one that you're going to cook the rice inches.
3. Put the rice in the boiling salted water, and stir in 1 tbsp olive oil. Mix it up perfectly then cover.
4. In the other pot, put the lentils inches.
5. Cover both pots, and set the timer for 20 minutes.
6. You're going to leave the rice alone until the time's up-- but check on the lentils and stir them every 5 minutes, covering when done.
7. When the time's up, drain the lentils about halfway. Put them in a large mixing bowl.
8. For the rice, turn the burner off and let it sit there for a few minutes.
9. Drain and rinse the rice-- now, you're going to see a lot of purple/black liquid come out. Don't be alarmed, this is natural from black rice, not a manufactured dye or anything.
10. Put the rice in with the lentils, and mix the bowl up.
11. With a potato masher, mash up the contents as best as you can- mash and stir constantly, and get most of it mashed up really well but leave a lot of whole pieces of rice and lentil in there for texture.
12. Stir in the minced garlic, kosher salt, and tahini until perfectly melded.
13. Add the 3/4 cup flour and stir together, the mixture should be stickier now.
14. Add the dry seasoning ingredients to the mixture and blend together.
15. Put the veggies into the mixture and mix up.
16. Put the remaining 1/2 cup flour into the bowl and mix it up, so it's thick and pasty now.
17. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes, and while it's doing that preheat the oven to 350 and make sure the rack is in the center.
18. With your hands, form patties about 4-5" and put directly onto a cookie/baking sheet greased with cooking spray.
19. Bake for 15 minutes. (This part took me twice as long because I only had room for 6 patties with my convection oven.).