Lentil Rice Burgers

These are flavorful veggie burgers, an easy alternative to traditional burgers, adaptable to your palate, and customizable with a few different ingredients. Cook them with cheese, put them between buns with your favorite toppings, and be amazed at the flavor! Great to make ahead and freeze.

Table of Contents Open

White plate with lentil cheeseburger on a bun on a wooden board.

SAVE THIS RECIPE

We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!

Fantastic veggie option

A good burger is one of my favorite foods.

I love (and cook often) this melting blue cheeseburger, but concluded that I could eat a lentil version and be just as satisfied. That was a revelation, a great one, I might add!

Flavor. The vegetables and seasonings are spot on, so you know the burger will be tasty.
It's satisfying. Use your usual bun and toppings and make yourself a great meal. I like mine pizza-style, topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Customizable. A few ingredients can be substituted, and you can add different herbs and spices and adjust to your palate.

Bitten lentil cheeseburger with lettuce on a bun on a white plate.

FAQ

How do you keep lentil burgers from falling apart?

This recipe uses mostly eggs as the binding ingredient. But rice, when processed, will also become one.

How do you bind lentil burgers?

The easiest way is to process the whole mixture so that the ingredients mix and achieve a cohesive mixture that will not fall apart. That said, I also add oats to the formed burgers, which will also aid in keeping the form while cooking.

Can you use flour to bind burgers?

In theory, you can, but we don't. But flour will make the burgers too dense and weigh it down, so we don't use it.

Are plant-based burgers better for you than beef?

It depends on the ingredients and how you eat them. Burgers that are mostly beef can be as healthy as veggie ones that are eaten with cheese and sauces.

Ingredient Notes

One of the most important parts of these successful lentil burgers is achieving a good flavor and binding them well, so they don't fall apart.

Lentils: brown, cooked lentils are the best. They are plump and have a good texture.
Rice: it has to be cooked, and it can be brown or white. I use Yamani a lot because I usually have leftovers. It acts as a binder as it becomes sticky when processed.
Soffrito: This is the star flavoring of this recipe and is the Italian trinity of ingredients - celery, carrot, onion - used so much in sauces because together they add so much flavor. You can also add some chopped garlic.
Oats: a dry ingredient that absorbs moisture and makes the structure better. Use rolled or instant.

White marble surface with ingredients for lentil rice burgers including whole eggs, oats, spices, vegetables, parsley.

How to make lentil veggie burgers

A food processor makes it very easy to put these lentil patties together.

Flavor mixture: the carrot, celery, and onion trifecta are processed together first. They are the base for the flavor, so don't omit them. Parsley and seasonings will add to this trio.
Binding ingredients: these will be the rice and the eggs. They will bring the mixture together, but it will first be very liquid, almost soupy. The rest of the ingredients will thicken it.
Thickeners: the final step is adding the main ingredient, lentils and oats, to make the mixture thick enough to form the burgers. This is important because if it's not the right consistency, they will fall apart when forming the lentil patties.

Top view of food processor bowl with chopped carrot, celery, and onion. White marble surface.

Coarsely chop onion, carrot, and celery. They don't need to be very processed at this point.

Rice and parsley added to food processor bowl with chopped vegetables. White marble surface.

Add the cooked rice, parsley, and spices. Process it all until they start to integrate. The mixture will be thick.

Soupy mixture of vegetables and rice in the food processor bowl seen from above on a white marble surface.

Add the egg and a few tablespoons of oats. The mixture will be soupy, and that is fine.

Final lentil burger mixture seen from above in the bowl of a food processor on a white marble surface.

Finally, the lentils are added and processed *just* until they're integrated with the rest of the ingredients. The final mixture should mound on a spoon.

Vintage Kitchen Tip

After adding the lentils, don't overprocess them, as they can become slightly bitter. That's why they're added at the end.

Forming the burgers

This is easy: simply take a scoop of the lentil mixture, form it into a ball, flatten it into a patty, and place it on top of some oats.

Sprinkle more oats to lightly coat the surface. This coating holds them together and will ensure they cook more evenly.

Hand pressing oats onto veggie burgers on a round wooden board.

How to cook them

You can use a skillet and cook them the traditional way.

But I found that oven-baked is the best way to cook these burgers so the egg is fully done before the outside is too dark.

Greased pan: I use oil (sunflower or olive oil) but you can use oil and butter (for flavor and so the butter doesn't burn).
Drizzle more oil before baking them in a medium oven (350°F/180°C) so they crisp on top.
Turn them around so they are evenly browned. Mine take 20-25 so turn them around at the 10-15 minute mark.
Serve them with a bun and all the trimmings or on a plate with a salad or maybe baked vegetables.

Baking sheet with lentil burgers with oats ready to be baked. View from above.

Opened lentil burger with lettuce and cheese slice on a bun placed on a white plate on a wooden board.

Freezing lentil burgers

After they're coated with oats, stack them with some type of separator, like squares of parchment paper or freezer sheets.
Put in an airtight container that is freezer-friendly or in a Ziploc-style bag. Label it (name and date).
Freeze for a month. Bake directly as specified in the recipe card.

Partial view of unccookied lentil burger topped with oats on parchment paper and wooden board

Kitchen notes

Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
Lentils: they can turn slightly bitter when you process them too much. So make sure you add them at the end and process only until it's all mixed and thick enough. Don't overprocess after adding them, as they can become bitter.
Measuring: I use a cup of each ingredient and two eggs, so using a larger container to measure or to cut the recipe in half is easy. Simply adjust the number of eggs that you will use.
Flavor: I strongly recommend adjusting the seasonings to your and your family's palate. This basic recipe is highly customizable when it comes to taste.
Substitutions: some ingredients can be substituted, like chickpeas for rice, spices, and parsley for cilantro or basil. But brown lentils are the best for this. You can use beans, but they wouldn't be lentil burgers, would they?
Seeds: if you want to make them more nutritional, add a tablespoon of chia seeds.

Pizza-style burgers

We call them Neapolitan burgers, which are lentil patties topped with tomato sauce and cheese. Make sure the cheese melts a lot, like the mozzarella used for pizza or another type that will give you a great melty experience.

Cook the burgers on one side, flip them over carefully, and top with a tablespoon or two of tomato sauce and a few slices of cheese.
Continue baking for 5-10 minutes, until cooked through and the cheese is melted.

Foil with lentil burgers topped with tomato sauce and cheese; same burgers baked

Eaten cheese lentil burger on parchment paper, white grey background

Before you go...

Did you make this recipe and loved it? You can comment below and leave a 5-star ⭐️ review. Also, if you had issues, let me know so we can troubleshoot together. You can also connect with me on Instagram and follow and save my recipes on Pinterest.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my disclosure policy.

Comments