These vegan lentil burgers are the perfect cookout main course! Flavorful, easy to make, and easily Top 8 Free. Gluten free vegan burgers will be a hit for all!
Burgers are perfect year round. We all know how good they are in the summer, but really, there’s not a time of the year that they aren’t great. These vegan lentil burgers are definitely up there on the must try list for everyone.
Sure, summer is cookout season and it’s great to throw burgers onto the grill and not have to warm up your house in 90+ degree weather; however, don’t discredit the joy of biting into a delicious burgers when it’s 40 degrees outside either.
The point is, that no matter what time of year it is, these vegan lentil burgers will be a hit. They are made gluten free and almost completely Top 8 Allergen friendly (we’ll give you those details below) so no matter who you are serving, everyone can enjoy.
If you are ready to dig into a juicy, melt in your mouth vegan burger recipe, then I invite you to try this one!
I will add that these take a bit longer than our other vegan burgers. If you need a quicker burger recipe (around 30 minutes total), check out our vegan black bean burgers or vegan chickpea burgers!
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What ingredients do you need to make vegan lentil burgers?
There are quite a few ingredients in here; however together they make one delicious burger. The ingredients that you need for these vegetarian burgers are:
- water
- flax seed
- dried lentils (we used brown)
- oat flour
- vegetable broth
- olive oil
- red onion
- carrot
- spinach
- garlic
- lemon juice
- black pepper
- cumin
- Italian seasoning
- vegan Worcestershire sauce
- liquid smoke
How do you make vegan lentil burgers?
To start, you want to rinse and drain the dried lentils. Then add them to a pot with 2 cups of vegetable broth. Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat and cover, simmering until the lentils are soft. This takes about 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, add the flax seeds and water and gently combine. Let sit for 10 minutes.
While that’s cooking, add the onion, carrot, and garlic to a food processor. To a skillet, add the oil and cook vegetable mixture until softened. If you are oil free, just add in vegetable broth instead.
Add the spinach to the skillet and saute until wilted (about 3-5 minutes). Remove from heat.
In the food processor, add in oats and combine into a flour if you need to make it, or if using store bought, add it to the processor. Add in the lemon juice, black pepper, cumin, Italian seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke.
Pour in the flax egg and vegetable mixture on top. Finally, add in the cooked lentils and puree well. No big chunks of any ingredient should remain. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. You could also leave in overnight.
Form mixture into 4 or 6 patties depending on the size that you want. Preheat your grill or skillet and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side.
Remove and serve on your favorite buns with desired toppings.
Can I make these Top 8 Allergen Friendly Burgers?
There are two vegan Worcestershire sauces that we know of currently. They both contain soy and one of those contains wheat. We really love the flavor that vegan worcestershire sauce gives, so I don’t recommend skipping this ingredient.
You can purchase the gluten free version of the worcestershire sauce easily on Amazon.
As far as the soy, I haven’t yet found a vegan version that you can buy that doesn’t contain soy; however, you could make your own homemade worcestershire sauce, like this one, and replace the soy sauce with a no soy soy free sauce.
HOW DO YOU MAKE VEGAN LENTIL BURGERS STICK TOGETHER?
One complaint we always hear is that people try to make vegan burgers at home and they don’t stick together. Whether when forming or when flipping or trying to remove from the skillet, they have issues.
We worked hard on this recipe to ensure that our vegan lentil burgers would hold together as well as they could without weird additives.
Typically, burgers bind together using eggs, but since these are vegan lentil burgers, we can’t use those. For this recipe, the binder is oat flour and flax egg.
The key is to let the mixture rest before cooking it which is why we tell you to put in the fridge for a bit. This allows the oat flour to soak up the moisture in the recipe and really bind things together.
The other thing is to let them sit for a few minutes after removing them from the stove. Combined with these two things, you should have perfect lentil burgers that hold together.
WHERE CAN YOU BUY VEGAN WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE?
We have started to finally find a vegan Worcestershire in our local stores, but before that we found on Amazon or Thrive Market.
The Annie’s one that is becoming available in markets does have wheat in it, so if you are gluten free, we recommend this gluten free, vegan Worcestershire sauce instead. See above about making a soy free sauce if needed.
What are some topping ideas for vegan lentil burgers?
In the picture, the burgers are topped with fried onions, tomatoes, vegan mayo, lettuce and the most delicious homemade vegan BBQ sauce.
Other topping ideas are:
- Guacamole (or just slice or mashed avocado)
- Vegan Cheese
- Swap the lettuce for spinach or arugula
- Vegan Bacon
- Roasted Red Peppers
- Onions
- Pickles
- and so much more!
WHAT ARE OTHER VEGAN BURGER RECIPES THAT I SHOULD TRY?
Once you try our amazing vegan burger, you may be wondering what other delicious vegan burger ideas you should try. We’ve rounded up a few that we would like to try ourselves. We thought they looked so good!
- The Best Vegan Black Bean Burger
- The Best Vegan Chickpea Burger
- Chickpea Falafel Burger
- Beet Burgers
- Mexican Burger with Adobo Sauce
- Bean Burger with Mustard Mayo
WHAT FOOD PROCESSOR DO YOU USE TO MAKE THE VEGAN BURGERS?
For this recipe, we use a KitchenAid 7-cup processor. Any quality food processor should be able to handle making these burgers. If you are questionable about your particular brand, we recommended chopping up the onions and green peppers before putting in your food processor.
Pin these Vegan Lentil Burgers for later:
Vegan Lentil Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried lentils, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 2 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (sub for more broth if oil free)
- 1 large red onion, quartered
- 1 large carrot, cubed
- 1 juice of lemon
- 2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 cup oat flour (or 1 cup rolled oats turned into oat flour)
- 2 tablespoon vegan worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- Desired Toppings (see post for ideas)
- 4-6 Buns
Instructions
- Rinse and drain the dried lentils.
- Add lentils to a pot with vegetable broth.
- Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and cover, simmering until the lentils are soft. About 30 minutes.
- While that is cooking, In a small bowl, add the flax seeds and water and gently combine. Let sit for 10 minutes. This makes a flax egg.
- Add the onion, carrot, and garlic to a food processor. Pulse until chopped.
- To a skillet, add the oil (or broth if oil free) and cook vegetable mixture until softened.
- Add spinach to the skillet and saute until wilted (about 3-5 minutes). Remove from heat.
- In the food processor, add in oats and combine into a flour if you need to make it, or if using store bought, add it to the processor.
- Add in the lemon juice, black pepper, cumin, Italian seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke.
- Pour in the flax egg and vegetable mixture on top.
- Add in the cooked lentils and puree well. No big chunks of any ingredient should remain.
- Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. You could also leave in overnight.
- Form mixture into 4 or 6 patties depending on the size that you want.
- Preheat your grill or skillet and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side. *If using a skillet add some oil so they don't stick. If using a grill, place foil or grill mat down. Do not lay on grill slates directly.
- Remove and serve on your favorite buns with desired toppings.
Notes
Nutrition
Valeria Zetino
I love this recipe because it’s truly so easy to follow while doing it and everything comes together so easily. No crumbles, fool proof and also: these are truly the BEST vegan lentil burgers. Cooking the lentils in vegetable stock is a GAME CHANGER. I didn’t have spinach or vegan worcestershire sauce, but the flavor was still on fire. Thank you so much Andrew and Larisha for yet another masterpiece!
Larisha Bernard
yay! So glad to hear that
Tina
These were so simple to make, delicious to eat and I was able to whip them up with pantry staples – I made a large one right away and just had the patty with a salad. Then took the mixture back out the next day to have burger style for lunch. I will say, if you are pan frying, cook them low and slow so they are crispy on the outside and warm on the inside.
LarishaCampbell
Thanks so much for leaving the tip and writing a review. We are excited that you loved them and appreciate your time! Have a great week