014: Poor Man's Gourmet

As I am a uni student, it is quite regular in my household for us to run out of food and there is at least one night a week when we are scrounging together the scraps in the back of the cupboard to make an excuse for a meal. (One memorable night I had peas and tomato sauce for dinner – yes, that was a low point in my life) and last night threatened to follow along the same course. All I had was a bag of dried lentils and half a pumpkin, but inspired by the recipe on the back of the lentil packet, this creation was born.

Pumpkin and Lentil Burger in a pancake bun (that idea was acquired from an amazing vegan restaurant near my house) with roast pumpkin chips and yoghurt sauce. Here's how I got there.

11/2 cups of cooked lentil (green, red, brown or a combination of all three) 

1/2 a medium butter-nut pumpkin 

1 cup of chickpeas, slightly crushed

Clove of Garlic 

1/2 an onion, chopped finely

1. Brown onion and garlic in a little splash of olive oil 

2. Mix lentils, pumpkin and chickpeas together with onion garlic mix. 

You are going for a nice thick consistency that holds together on its own. If necessary, add some flour (or chickpea flour for a vegan alternative) 

3. Cook. I shallow fried mine, but I find shallow frying difficult to manage, so I guess a deep fryer would work better (although not better for you) They can also be baked. 

The pancake mix I used was a very simple savoury pancake mix, but for a vegan/ gluten free alternative, I've found this recipe to work wonderfully;

1 cup of rice flour (or gluten free flour)

pinch of salt

1 1/2 soy milk 

1/8 vegetable oil 

And make like any other pancake. 

For finishing touches, I mixed a little diced cucumber and Greek yoghurt, and roasted the rest of the pumpkin with paprika and sea salt and enjoyed a feast fit for a king.   

  Kathleen x