Tag: Tree Nut-free

I LOVE dal.  It’s almost a perfect food — cheap, easy to make, adaptable, tasty…  But it can be difficult, like so many other things, to order out at a restaurant with allergies.  Dal is one of those dishes that seems to have a thousand and one “family recipes” so you never know what you might encounter when you order it out, though ghee is the most common questionable ingredient, cream is sometimes used.

The real question is why it took so long for me to learn to make my own.

When we were talking veggie burgers that would be grillable, this was the one of the first things that came to mind.  It would be different from your standard Boca (which is soy-based), but wouldn’t even attempt to be like a meat burger.  Flavor would be the key.  In this case, rather than even attempt to interpret multiple recipes and see what might sound good, I went on instinct, with flavors I knew I liked that I thought would stand up to grilling in a patty shape.  The mustard seeds and the chia seeds add a nice bit of texture and crunch, but the key is the counter-intuitive practice of blooming the spices in hot oil and adding them to the beans at the end of cooking.

You will need to cool down the dal and then briefly (an hour or so) refrigerate the burgers, so plan ahead or make these the day before.

Red Lentil Dal Burgers

In medium saucepan, mix:

• 1 cup red lentils, washed and sorted
• 3 cups water

Bring to boil and simmer 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils no longer retain structural integrity.  Remove from heat.

Spice mix to add to dal:

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup finely minced onion
• 3/4 t salt
• 2 Tablespoons microplaned ginger
• 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced cilantro

Heat a small skillet over medium low heat until hot.  Add the oil.  Let it heat up a minute, until it shimmers.  Add the mustard AND COVER THE PAN (ask me how I know this).  When the mustard seeds have popped some, quickly add the onion and cover for another 30 seconds or so.  Otherwise, you will be finding popped mustard seeds when you move out.  When the onion is nicely browned, add the rest of the spices and cook until the garlic is fragrant and cooked, stirring very frequently so as not to burn anything.

Add the spice mix to the lentils along with

• 2 Tablespoons chia seeds, whole (use maybe 1-1/4 T if ground, but you’ll miss the crunch in here)

Mix well and then taste — adjust the seasonings (particularly salt) if necessary.

Chill this mixture until completely cool, and then use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to make patties — keep these no larger than, say, an average coffee mug’s opening, and they will stay together even on a regular grill — go bigger at your own risk.

These are fully cooked, so just singe and warm them on the grill, and serve with lime wedges.  I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a bun, but if you need one, maybe check out the not pitas I originally made to go with them.

So we’re heading into picnic and cookout weather, and we have some holidays coming up that might result in you getting invited to some cookouts.  Mary Kate and I thought it’d be a good idea to have some burgers that are safe for those of us allergies that we can prep ahead of time and bring with us to throw on a grill.  Now you may be saying, Denise and Mary Kate, why wouldn’t ground beef be safe?  Well, it is–unless someone decides to season it with ranch dressing.  And unless you’ve seen the package for the hot dogs, they might have milk in them.  And I know people who soak their chicken in buttermilk before grilling or frying it. It’s a lot easier to bring your own food and be sure you can eat something, than to sit at a cookout all afternoon looking at food you can’t eat. So with that in mind, we’ve come up with some great recipes that you’re going to be seeing pop up here and there over the next few months. Because it’s going to be summer, and we need to cook stuff outside with fire!

Falafel Burgers

• l lb bag of garbanzo beans/chick peas (soaked overnight, see below)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of parsley, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (depending on your spice tolerance)
• 2 Tablespoons of garbanzo bean/chick pea flour
• A food processor (you really can’t do this in a blender)

Place the garbanzo beans in a large bowl and cover them by 3-4 inches of water.  Let them soak overnight.  They should double in size.

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans thoroughly.  Unless your food processor is a heck of a lot bigger than mine, you’re going to have to do the following in batches.  Place the garbanzo beans, onion, garlic, parsley, salt, coriander, black pepper, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and flour in the food processor and process until a rough coarse meal forms, so that it’s somewhere between a paste and the size of millet or quinoa.  To do this, I had to process garbanzo beans in three batches, leaving them a bit rough, dumping the processed garbanzo beans into an appropriately sized holding bowl.  Then I put about half a cup of the processed garbanzo beans back in the food processor along with the onion, garlic, parsley, salt, coriander, black pepper, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and flour, and processed it. Then I dumped the completed mix back into the bowl and stirred it with the plain garbanzo beans and then ran the whole  mixture back from the food processor to ensure that the spice mixture was evenly mixed with all the garbanzo beans.

You can make the garbanzo bean mixture the day before you intend to serve the burgers to make the day of cooking easier.  If you do, cover the mixture with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator until you need it.

If you’re cooking these on a grill (yes, it is possible), make your burgers slightly smaller, more like sliders because they’ll hold together easier.  Spray down your grill with grilling spray, checking to make sure it’s safe for your allergies. Depending on the heat of your grill, cook each side 2-3 minutes at least each side.  Only turn them once otherwise you make make a mess.  To get them golden brown, we cooked them on a hotter grill that we thought appropriate at first.

If you don’t have a grill, you can cook them in a skillet with some vegetable oil.  Fill a skillet with about a inch of vegetable oil and heat the oil at medium heat.  Cook them for 2-3 minutes per side until they are golden brown.  Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.

Serve your falafel in a wrap with Tzatziki Sauce, some lettuce, and other veggies or put it on a burger bun with the Tzatziki Sauce.

Enjoy!