Early tomorrow morning my ds16 is leaving for camp.  Late this afternoon, I thought that it was too bad I hadn’t planned a nicer dinner since it’s his last dinner with us for four weeks, but I was already in the middle of dinner preparations.  When I said something, he told me he’ll appreciate a healthy dinner most since he’s going to be eating junky meals until he gets home. 

The main dish tonight was something I never made before, but everyone really liked it – lentil pecan burgers.  Together with that I served: baked potatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, corn and red pepper relish, lacto fermented pickles, and homemade mayonnaise.  I don’t usually serve dessert but adding dessert was a simple way to make it a little nicer, and we had a couple of pounds of organic cherries – half golden, half Bing.  (I got them at a super price – just .99 lb for the red, 1.49 lb for the golden; of course I got much more of the red!:))  In spite of not having specially planned it, it was a pretty nice meal. 

It also ended up being an expensive recipe since ds10 dropped the manual food processor (yes, the one that I just bought and only used once before) filled with lentils three times within ten minutes on our tile kitchen floor – and the third time the container part totally cracked open.  Sigh. I should have just told him to mash them by hand, which is what we had to do in the end anyway.  The attrition rate for my kitchen appliances is on the high side; I consider it a hidden cost of having children. 

Anyway, here’s the recipe.  Like lots of other recipes, I made it up based partially on something else (I took the idea of combining lentils and pecans from Nourishing Traditions) and whatever I have on hand that I feel like adding, so I don’t have firm measurements.  I’ll estimate as best as I can; you’ll probably want to adjust it to your taste.

Lentil Pecan Burgers

• 4 c. ground pecans
• 4 c. cooked lentils, mashed
• 8 eggs
• 2 t. minced dried onion (I was out of fresh – you can chop a couple onions finely and saute them in coconut oil/shmaltz/butter)
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 3 t. sea salt
• 3 t. prepared mustard
• enough flour or matza meal to bind mixture – I used about a cup

Mix the ground pecans with other dry ingredients except the flour or matza meal so everything mixes evenly, then add in the moist ingredients.  Add in enough flour to bind the mixture, but don’t add in too much – it should still be moist but not sticky (sounds like a bread dough recipe, doesn’t it? :)).   Scoop out the mixture using a 1/4 cup measure, put on a greased baking sheet, and flatten it a little with a fork.  Bake at 450 degrees until the tops start to get crispy/firm. 

This made enough for everyone to have as many as they wanted with leftovers, so  I’d suggest making a quarter of this recipe for a smaller family.  These look surprisingly similar to hamburgers, and taste meaty, too. 

Avivah