Walnut Sage Burgers

Walnut Sage Burgers are packed with flavour. And, they are vegan and heart healthy too! They taste so good, your non vegan friends will love them just as much as you do. Here's how to make them:

Hamburgers aren't 'burgers' unless they are made with beef? Well, once you've tried this recipe, you are going to think otherwise! Not only are these burgers full of protein, but they are heart healthy too as they contain none of the cholesterol building animal fats. 

100g of Walnuts = 15g of protein

100g of Beef = 26g of protein

Walnuts provide around 60% of the protein of beef per gram. However, the lentils in this recipe also provide 9g of protein per 100g and oats a further 2.5g.

Hence, if you want to achieve the same protein intake as a typical hambuger (which might be around 70% beef and 30% other) then, you might want to eat an extra half a vegan hambuger, or just increase the amount of walnuts you add / increase the size of your vegan hambugers.

Step 1: Cook your red lentils. Add the red lentils to a small pan, cover sufficiently with water, bring to the boil and gently simmer for 20 minutes. I also add a good dash of Serriana olive oil to prevent the lentils from 'sticking'. (If you start with cooked lentils from a jar, you can skip this).

Step 2. Put the oven on 190 degrees centigrade, and line a baking tray (or pizza tray) with baking paper, lightly brushed with olive oil

Step 3. Put the walnuts, oats, olives, garlic and sage in a food mixer (or use a bowl and a handheld blender) and blend until finely ground. Place in a large bowl.

Step 4. Add the lentils, olive oil, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, onion powder and ground linseed to the bowl and mix well.

Step 5. Form 6 burgers and place on the baking tray and bake for 20 to 30 minutes

Step 6. Serve and top with fresh parsley or a tomato and black olive.

You can serve your burgers right away, hot from the oven. Or you can let them cool and refrigerate them and then fry lightly in olive oil the next day. Or, even, you can cut them into small piece and use them as a small tapas and top them with small cherry tomatoes, a chutney, hummus etc...

If you are feeling more wintery, you can caramelise onions, and add those to your burgers too!

Lastly, you can freeze your vegan hamburgers.

Hamburgers go great with salads or potato chips / French fries and normally they are placed in a bun. However, here, I have just sliced a fresh tomato and cut and stacked the hambuger and then added a black olive on top with a drizzle of olive oil!

If you enjoyed this dish of walnut sage burger - why not check out more olive oil recipes here?

Did you know that some walnut tree varieties grow well in the UK? Check them out here...