Lean cutlets from lentils. "Budget" lentil cutlets: recipes - simple and tasty

Do you love meatballs? Surely yes, because this is a very satisfying and tasty dish that goes well with any side dish. We are used to the fact that homemade cutlets are made mainly from meat or fish, but now many housewives, taking care of the health of their family, recall old recipes for cutlets from vegetables, cereals and more. Today we have collected for you a whole collection of recipes for lentil cutlets - a very tasty and healthy culture that is becoming increasingly popular in modern cooking.

What is good about lentils

This plant of the legume family has been known since prehistoric times. According to archaeological research, flat lentil seeds have been used to prepare various dishes since the ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. And among the indigenous people of America, this culture completely occupied the main place in cooking. Asian cuisine is also rich in lentil dishes.

4 flavors

Among the many varieties of this plant, chefs distinguish 4 of the most suitable for cooking.

1. Brown lentils are the most popular type and are used mainly for soups with vegetables and spices. The grains after thermal exposure take on a creamy structure and hold their shape well.
2. Red lentils are the second most popular. She melts very quickly. Therefore, you can cook it when time is very short. After 15 minutes, you will get an excellent rich soup or soft, boiled porridge.
   

   To prepare cutlets from such lentils, it is better not to process the grains for too long.

3. Beluga lentils look like black beluga caviar, for which it got its name. Small rounded black grains do not require soaking, keep their shape after heat treatment, and have a spicy taste.
4. Puy lentils (French green, dark, variegated) - the most fragrant variety with a spicy smell of pepper. Requires long cooking, preferably with pre-soaking, perfectly retains its shape. Lentils of this variety are often used in salads.

In cooking, 4 popular varieties of lentils are most often used

Lentils belong to dietary products, so it is gaining popularity among people leading a healthy lifestyle. The grains of the plant contain practically no fat, but they contain proteins and carbohydrates that provide a long-lasting feeling of fullness.

Table: nutritional value of 100 g of lentils

Ingredients for cutlets

First of all, it is, of course, the lentil itself. It will need to be boiled or soaked in water for a while and ground into a puree, which will become the basis of the “minced meat”. In addition, you will need:

• salt;
• spices to taste;
• flour and breadcrumbs;
• greenery;
• vegetable oil for frying.

And then it all depends on the recipe and your imagination. Since lentils have a rather soft structure, it is not necessary to add eggs to cutlets at all. But various vegetables are very well suited: cabbage, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin. They will add extra volume to the mass and give the cutlets lightness and juiciness.

To prepare lentil cutlets, you can use any vegetables, mushrooms, seasonings, sauces, cereals

What can we say that lentil puree can be safely mixed with minced meat or chicken! Yes, and cereals - buckwheat - also go well with lentils.

How many minutes?

We will make a reservation right away that you are unlikely to be able to cook lentil cutlets in 15 minutes. Cooking time depends on the recipe. In most varieties, lentils must first be soaked for several hours or even overnight, and then boiled until cooked and cooled. But directly frying will take not so much time. If you like quick recipes, feel free to use small red lentils - they do not require soaking and in 25–30 minutes they will not just boil, but boil to a puree state, so you will not need to grind it with a blender or meat grinder. Green lentils will take the longest to cook - about 40 minutes.

Another way to speed up the process is to steam soaked raw lentil patties in a pressure cooker.

And now we offer you step-by-step recipes for lentil cutlets. There are so many that you will surely choose yours. We have collected for you options for cooking lentil cutlets for every taste: meat, lean and vegetarian, with various vegetables, cereals, mushrooms, sauces, steamed, in the oven and in a slow cooker.

Vegetarian, vegan and lean recipes

Fresh lentils with fried onions

For 4 servings you will need:

• 1 cup lentils (brown);
• 6 bulbs (onions);
• 1 cup breadcrumbs;
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying;
• salt and any spices to taste.

Cooking:

1. Lentils should be soaked for at least 10 hours. Therefore, fill it with water in a deep saucepan, leave it overnight (the grains will increase in volume by 2 times), and start cooking in the morning.

   Soak lentils for 10 hours or overnight

2. Chop the onion, fry it until golden brown in vegetable oil. Add salt and seasonings while frying. You can not even limit yourself to 6 bulbs, but add more of them.

   Pass the onion and add salt and seasonings to it

3. Throw the lentils in a colander, then pass through a meat grinder, combining with fried onions. Add more salt and seasonings, mix the minced meat thoroughly.

   Pass the lentils with onions through a meat grinder, season with spices and mix

4. If you don't have breadcrumbs, make them by grinding pieces of dry white bread in a blender or substitute flour. You can add a little turmeric to the boning for a golden color.

   You can make your own breadcrumbs by grinding stale bread in a blender

5. Make small patties from the minced meat, roll each in breadcrumbs or flour and fry in vegetable oil on both sides for 5 minutes, then cover the pan with a lid and simmer the patties for another 2-3 minutes.

   Fry cutlets on both sides to get a delicious crust

Green lentils with potatoes and carrots

Ingredients:

• 200 g green lentils;
• 1 potato;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• ½ bunch of dill;
• ½ bunch of parsley;
• 1 teaspoon turmeric;
• 1 pinch of salt;
• 2 tablespoons of flour;
• 50 g of vegetable oil;
• 1 pinch of ground black pepper.

Cooking:

1. Pour the washed lentils with boiling water and cook until tender.

   Boil the lentils

2. Pre-boil carrots and potatoes (you can do this in the microwave to save time, 6 minutes is enough at full power). Clean your vegetables.

   Boil carrots and potatoes, peel them

3. Put carrots, potatoes, herbs and garlic in a blender. Grind.

   Grind vegetables, herbs and garlic in a blender

4. Add lentils to the mass in the blender. Turn on the device again so that all products are mixed into a puree. It remains to season with salt, turmeric and pepper, add flour and mix thoroughly again until smooth.

   Add lentils, salt, flour and spices to blender bowl

5. Form cutlets with your hands or a spoon, put them in a hot pan with oil, fry on both sides until a crust forms. You can serve the dish with any fresh vegetable salad..

   Serve cutlets with vegetable salads

You can give lentil patties a meaty flavor by adding a pinch of ground nutmeg to the minced meat.

A small amount of ground nutmeg will give veggie cutlets a meaty flavor.

With mushrooms

These cutlets are ideal for a lean table. After all, they combine all the products necessary for good nutrition: potatoes, lentils and mushrooms.

Lentil cutlets with mushrooms - an excellent dish for a lean table

For 4 servings, you need the following products:

• 200 g lentils;
• 500 ml of water;
• 1 leek bulb;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 1 medium sized potato;
• 100 g of mushrooms (honey mushrooms, champignons), pre-boiled for 15 minutes;
• ½ lemon for juice;
• 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs;
• 1 tablespoon of wheat flour for breading;
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil;
• 1 teaspoon sesame;
• 1 teaspoon of salt.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the lentils, put them in a deep bowl, cover with water. Add in the garlic and onion, coarsely chopped. Boil for 20 minutes over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms.

   cut the mushrooms

3. Peel the potatoes, grate it on a coarse grater.

   Grate raw potatoes

4. Add mushrooms to lentils with potatoes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated and the mass becomes thick. Don't forget to stir constantly.

   Cook lentils, mushrooms and potatoes until the mass thickens.

5. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add lemon juice, breadcrumbs and olive oil to the mixture.

   Add breadcrumbs, butter and lemon juice

6. Using an immersion blender, puree the mass. Do not be too zealous: it will be better if small pieces of onion and mushrooms remain in the minced meat. Now salt the mass, mix and leave until completely cooled.

   Grind the mass in a saucepan to a puree state and cool

7. With wet hands, form meatballs into patties. Roll them in flour mixed with sesame seeds.

   Roll cutlets in sesame flour

8. Fry in oil until crispy.

   Fry cutlets in oil on both sides until golden brown

You can serve such lentil-mushroom cutlets with potatoes, vegetable salad, a side dish of rice or buckwheat.

Video: simple and quick red lentil mushroom cutlets

With rice or buckwheat

Any variety of lentils that you have on hand will work for this recipe. Rice will give the meat volume, lightness and a milder taste. When you form cutlets, try to make them thinner: this way they will fry well and become crispy faster.

Lentil rice cakes can be made from any variety of lentils

For 20 cutlets you will need:

• 1 cup rice (or buckwheat);
• 1 glass of lentils;
• 4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs;
• fresh herbs (dill, green onion, parsley, basil, etc.) - to taste;
• salt and your favorite seasonings to taste.
  Cooking:

1. Prepare food for cutlets.

   Prepare products: lentils, rice, breadcrumbs, greens and seasonings

2. Boil rice (or) until tender. Perhaps it will be better if the cereal is slightly digested. During this time, you will have time to wash the lentils, pour boiling water over it and let it brew. Half an hour will be enough. So the grains do not have to be cooked. It is also not necessary to boil buckwheat, you can simply pour boiling water over it for 20–30 minutes: it quickly absorbs water and swells.

   Let the lentils brew in boiling water and boil the grits

3. Now pass the lentils through a meat grinder or chop in a blender. Add boiled porridge to it, salt, season with spices. You can pour a little flour into the minced meat if you think that the mass is not elastic enough. Ideally, minced meat should keep its shape well due to the stickiness of rice.

   Due to the stickiness of rice, cutlets will keep their shape well and will not spread during frying.

4. You just have to form cutlets and fry them in hot oil.

   Fry cutlets on both sides in hot vegetable oil

5. Flavor ready cutlets with tomato sauce, mayonnaise or sour cream and serve with a light vegetable salad.

   Instead of rice, buckwheat can be added to lentil cutlets, this dish will not need a side dish, but sauce and fresh vegetables will come in handy

If someone in your family does not like the taste of buckwheat, add chopped carrots and a couple of cloves of garlic passed through a press to the minced meat. These products will take on the main taste functions. In addition, you will need to mix in a little flour, since buckwheat, unlike rice, does not have the necessary stickiness.

Video: how to cook lentil-rice cutlets

With sauerkraut

Lentils and sauerkraut go great together in cutlets

Take these products:

• 1.5 cups green lentils;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 onion;
• 400 g of sauerkraut;
• 1 pinch of ground black pepper;
• ½ teaspoon salt.

Cooking:

1. Leave well-washed lentils to swell overnight in water. In the morning, boil it for 10 minutes in salted water, put it in a colander. Twist in a meat grinder or chop with a blender.

   Grind boiled lentils into puree

2. Cut the onion as you like, and grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Fry until golden brown and soft in vegetable oil. Add sauerkraut, pour in some water and simmer for 10 minutes.

   Stew onions, carrots and sauerkraut

3. When the mass has cooled, grind it in a blender or meat grinder. Combine with prepared lentils, salt, add spices.
4. Form cutlets. Fry them in vegetable oil on both sides until crispy.

   From a homogeneous lentil-vegetable mass, form cutlets and fry in vegetable oil

With couscous with spicy tomato sauce

These meatballs are sure to be loved by your family due to their delicate aroma and spicy taste. The number of products is designed for 20 cutlets.

Serve lentil and couscous patties with tomato sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red lentils;
• 1 glass of couscous;
• 2 onions (onions);
• 300 g of tomatoes in their own juice (100 g of juice in cutlets, 200 g of tomatoes for sauce);
• 100 g fresh parsley;
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (2 tablespoons for frying onions, 1 spoon for sauce);
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 1 tablespoon dry or fresh cilantro (in sauce);
• 1 teaspoon dry nutmeg in (sauce);
• salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the lentils, place in a saucepan and cover with 2 cups of water. Put on fire, bring to a boil, cook for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. When there is some water left in the pot, remove it from the heat, add the couscous and stir.

   Boil the lentils, mix it with dry couscous

2. Leave the base for 15 minutes under the lid.

   Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes to let the couscous soak up the water.

3. Meanwhile, chop the onion and fry it in oil.

   Fry chopped onion

4. Pour the tomato juice into the fried onion, salt and pepper.

   Add tomato juice and seasonings

5. Keep on fire for 2 minutes, remove the pan from the stove, add chopped fresh parsley, mix.

   Add chopped parsley and stir

6. Combine lentils with couscous and onions with tomato sauce and parsley in one mass. Mix the mince thoroughly.

   Combine all products in minced meat

7. Form cutlets from the mass, fry in a dry frying pan (preferably with a non-stick coating) on ​​both sides, 1 minute on each side.

   Fry cutlets in a dry frying pan without oil

8. Now we need to make the sauce. Peel the tomatoes from the skins, put them in a deep bowl. Add vegetable oil, garlic, salt and pepper, nutmeg and cilantro. Use a blender to puree the ingredients.

   For the sauce, mix tomatoes, seasonings and vegetable oil into a homogeneous mass.

9. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Then turn off the stove and let the sauce cool down.

   Boil the sauce and let it cool

Lentil cutlets can be served either hot or cold.

Video: lentil cutlets with couscous and tomato sauce

Spicy no-fry Turkish burgers with bulgur

This recipe came to us from Turkish cuisine. It is similar to the previous version of cutlets with couscous, but there is no cilantro here - by the way, not everyone likes its aroma - and hot red pepper gives a zest to the taste of the dish. However, it can be replaced with ground paprika if you do not need sharpness.

Take these products:

Video: cooking cutlets from lentils and bulgur

Baked with oatmeal

Baked lentil cutlets are in no way inferior to fried ones. There are even some advantages: firstly, the dish will be healthier, and secondly, you can not stand at the stove, but go about your business while the oven is working.

The oven will help you cook juicy lentil cutlets

For these cutlets you will need:

• 1 cup lentil seeds;
• 1 cup oatmeal (cereal);
• ½ cup breadcrumbs;
• 2 glasses of water;
• 1 medium sized carrot;
• ½ onion;
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce;
• salt and your favorite spices to taste.

Cooking:

1. Boil the lentils until tender. While it is cooking, finely chop the onion, peel and grate the carrots.

   Boil the lentils, fry the onions and grate the carrots

2. Once the lentils are cooked, turn on the oven so that it warms up to 180 degrees.
3. In a coffee grinder or blender, grind oatmeal into flour.
4. Combine all prepared products, add soy sauce, mix. The minced meat should be soft and slightly moist, so you can add a little water if it seems dry to you.

   Combine all products and make minced meat

5. Line a baking sheet or pan with parchment paper or grease it with vegetable oil. Lay out the cutlets and bake them for 20 minutes.

   Arrange the cutlets in a baking sheet or pan and bake for 20 minutes

Video: how to cook lentil cutlets in the oven

The most useful steamed sprouted lentil cutlets

Those who are forced to adhere to a strict diet due to problems with the stomach and intestines know how difficult it is to cook something tasty and satisfying. Most often, you have to steam food, and in this case, a double boiler or slow cooker with steam mode becomes an indispensable assistant. In it, lentil cutlets are soft, tender, ideal for diet food. Of course, vegetables will be used in minced meat, but there can be no question of any preliminary frying: we will simply chop them in a blender.

Steamed lentil cutlets, light and very healthy

Another feature of such cutlets: lentils need to be sprouted a little. So, we need:

• 200 g green lentils;
• 2 teaspoons curry (if you like it, and if not - any other seasoning);
• 1 teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt)
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger;
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice;
• 3 tablespoons chopped dill and parsley;
• 1 small carrot;
• 100 g cabbage;
• 3 tablespoons of semolina;
• 2 tablespoons of flour.

Cooking:

1. Soak the lentils overnight, then drain, rinse and evenly distribute on a wide dish, cover with wet gauze rolled up in two layers. Leave for 2-3 days for the seeds to begin to germinate.
2. Chop greens, cut carrots and cabbage. Place the vegetables and sprouted lentils in the bowl of a blender or food processor and chop.
3. Form small patties, place them in a double boiler or slow cooker and steam for 20 minutes.

If you do not have a double boiler or slow cooker, take a wide pan with low walls, pour water into it to a maximum of a third of the depth. Place a metal mesh, flat colander or diffuser on top so that they do not touch the water. Turn on medium heat, wait for the water to boil, put the cutlets and cook under the lid for 20-25 minutes.

Monastic style with black bread

Dishes prepared according to monastic recipes are distinguished by their simplicity, but they do not at all lose their taste and aroma. For example, in the Kirillo-Afanasevsky Monastery, they use such a recipe for making lentil cutlets.

You will need:

• 300 g lentils;
• 1 large onion;
• 3 slices of black bread (pulp);
• salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the lentils, soak them for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. After the grains increase in volume by 2-3 times, drain the remaining water.

   Rinse and soak the lentils, after swelling, drain the water

2. Put the lentils, onion and bread crumb in a blender bowl, chop. You can also use a meat grinder.

   Grind food in a blender or meat grinder

3. If the minced meat does not grind well or turns out to be thick, add a little water. Pour in water little by little, literally one spoon at a time, because the excess will have to be drained later. Salt the mass and season with pepper.

   Salt and pepper the resulting mass

4. Form into small patties, roll them in flour. It is best to prepare a mixture of wheat and cornmeal in a ratio of 1: 1 for deboning.. Fry cutlets in vegetable oil, 5 minutes on each side.

   Serve ready-made meatballs with fresh vegetables.

Video: lentil cutlets from the servants of the Kirillo-Afanasiev Monastery

Lentil cutlets with animal products

With vegetables in a multicooker

And again, we will connect another assistant to the hostess in the kitchen - a slow cooker - to the preparation of cutlets. In this recipe, we will have to observe certain proportions. For example, the weight of all vegetables used for minced meat should be equal to the weight of prepared, soaked and boiled lentils.

A slow cooker will help you quickly cook juicy, fragrant lentil cutlets

Products:

• 100 g red lentils;
• 100 g zucchini;
• 100 g cabbage;
• 40 g carrots;
• 60 g of onion;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 1 egg yolk;
• any spices to taste.

Cooking:

1. Soak the lentils in boiling water overnight and boil until tender. It should increase in volume so that you get about 300 g. As you can see, in total, the vegetables make up the same mass. Let the lentil mixture cool down.

   Prepare food for meatballs

2. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables. Saute onion and garlic, then add carrots, cabbage, zucchini, pour in a little water, cover the pan with a lid and simmer until soft.
3. Combine cooked vegetables with lentil gruel, add egg yolk, salt and spices. Mix thoroughly. You can use a blender to make the mass homogeneous.

   Using a blender, grind and mix the products

4. Make medium sized patties. Put them in the multicooker bowl, select the “pie, cake” device mode (baking for 25 minutes). When 15 minutes have passed from the start of baking, turn the cutlets over to the other side, close the lid again and wait for the multicooker to finish.

   Put the cutlets in the slow cooker and cook on the "pie, cupcake" or "baking" mode, turning them over to the other side in the middle of the cycle

Be careful if you have a pressure cooker, that is, a device that cooks under pressure: in this case, you need to leave the steam valve open.

with eggs

In this recipe, we also use red lentils, because they quickly boil to the desired consistency. Fresh herbs - onions and dill - will add additional taste and aroma to cutlets.

Greens, garlic and spices will be a great addition to these cutlets

You will need:

• 250 g red lentils;
• 350 g of water;
• 1 onion (onion);
• 1 carrot;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 2 chicken eggs;
• ½ bunch of green onion feathers;
• ½ bunch of dill;
• 50 ml sunflower oil for frying;
• salt and various spices to taste.

Cooking:

1. Pour water over the lentils and cook until fully cooked, so that the porridge turns out to be dry and there is a spoon in it. If you have a slow cooker, cook lentils in it on the "Rice" mode.

   Boil the lentils until fully cooked

2. Peel carrots, onions and garlic, chop them. First fry the garlic in a pan (no more than half a minute), add the onions and carrots, sauté until golden brown and remove from the stove. Finely chop the green onion and dill, combine them with lentils and roast. Enter 2 eggs, salt, season with spices, mix the minced meat thoroughly.

   Lentils will be a great addition to the usual minced meat cutlets

   You will need:

   • 200 g lentils;
   • 500 g minced meat or minced meat (any, to your taste);
   • 1 egg;
   • 2 slices of bread;
   • 1 onion;
   • 20 g breadcrumbs;
   • 20 ml vegetable oil.

   Cooking:

   1. Pour lentils with boiling water for an hour. While the grains are steaming, peel and finely chop the onion. Soak the bread in cold water (10-15 minutes is enough for it to get wet enough and soften).
   2. Drain excess water from lentils and squeeze out bread. Mix all prepared products into a homogeneous mass. Salt, pepper the resulting mass, add the egg, mix again.
   3. Form cutlets with hands moistened in cold water or a tablespoon, roll in flour.
   4. Fry on both sides in hot vegetable oil in a frying pan without a lid.

   If you use minced chicken instead of meat, the cutlets will turn out to be lighter and juicier.

   If you want the cutlets to be airy and light, use minced chicken. Chicken meat belongs to dietary products, especially if it is breast, so the cutlets will turn out not only tasty, but also as healthy as possible.

   Like any healthy product, lentils can be a real source of inspiration. Cutlets from it alone can be so varied that even the most demanding gourmet will find a recipe to their liking. Maybe our readers cook them in some special way that is unknown to us? Share your lentil cutlet recipes with us in the comments. Bon appetit!

Many people know about the benefits of legumes, but I would like to remind you that lentils are primarily fiber, rich in vegetable protein with natural sugars and saturated fatty acids. And lentils are a source of vitamins A, E, PP and group B, the leader among legumes in terms of iron content. In addition, it contains potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, zinc, fluorine and iodine. To all this wealth, you can still add isoflavins, which have antioxidant properties, and folic acid, which is so necessary for the female body.

Now there is no doubt about the benefits of lentils. I would like to add that the taste of lentils is also on top. It is very tasty as an independent dish, and in combination with meat, vegetables, cereals and broth. Below you can find a recipe for diet lean lentil patties, which are prepared with a minimum of ingredients and are a great alternative to the usual meat patties.

The calorie content of lentil cutlets is 101.28 kcal per 100 grams (this is about two medium cutlets), proteins, fats and carbohydrates in 100 grams will be 4.73; 2.96 and 14.46 grams, respectively.

To prepare lentil cutlets you will need:

• lentils (any variety) - 1 cup;
• onion - 1 pc.
• carrots - 1 pc.
• olive oil - 10 g (1 tablespoon).

How to cook lean lentil cutlets, recipe with photo

Lentils should be soaked in cold water for about 6 to 8 hours in advance, and preferably from yesterday all night so that it later boils faster. During this time, it will swell a little.

Then it is necessary to wash the lentils, pour clean cold water (boiling water can be used, then it will cook faster) and cook until cooked for about forty minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients. To do this, peel the onions and carrots, rinse them with water.

Chop the onion arbitrarily, not too finely, grate the carrots on a large aunt.

Fry onions and carrots in a frying pan with the addition of one tablespoon of olive oil until tender, add a little salt at the beginning of frying.

After the lentils are cooked, it must be cooled, all the water remaining after cooking is drained from it, throwing the lentils on a sieve or gauze. This is very important, because the less liquid left in the lentils, the denser the patties will be and it will be easier to form and fry them (in other words, they will not fall apart).

Then the lentils should be crushed in a blender in a puree.

Add the fried and slightly cooled onions and carrots to the lentil puree and again carefully chop everything until smooth.

Minced meat for cutlets is ready. If desired, you can add fresh herbs, dried herbs, your favorite seasonings and spices to it.

Now it remains to form small cutlets from minced meat and fry them in a dry frying pan and minimum heat on both sides. You can also fry in oil, then they will be more ruddy, but their calorie content will increase significantly.

Ready-made lentil cutlets are best served with vegetable stew or fresh vegetable salad, they also go well with sour cream and tomato sauce.

Pour the lentils with cold water, bring to a boil, cook over low heat until absolutely soft (the lentils should boil). Then put it on a sieve.

Peel and very finely chop the onion. Peel the carrots and grate on a fine grater.

Peel and chop very finely or finely grate the garlic and ginger. Chop green onions.

In a small skillet over medium heat, heat butter and 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, put the seeds of cumin. After 30 sec. add ginger with garlic, after another 15 seconds. - all onions and carrots. Fry, stirring, 4 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately stir in lentils.

Add egg and yolk to lentils with vegetables, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Then cover with foil and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Heat up a large skillet with vegetable oil. With wet hands, take about 2 tbsp. l. minced meat and sculpt a small round cutlet. Fry over medium heat until golden brown on both sides. Serve hot.

Hello, dear friends - readers of my blog! Probably, you have read or heard from nutritionists more than once that red meat is not the most useful product for women, dishes from it can provoke breast cancer, it is better to choose poultry meat. Of course, it can be argued that the human body is in dire need of protein and a variety of foods. I hasten to please vegetarians and those who do not like meat very much, among plants there are cultures that contain an extremely high amount of protein. For example, lentils, and lean cutlets from lentils in terms of benefits for the body, taste and variety of cooking recipes, will not yield to culinary meat products.

Recipe for lean lentil patties

Before we look at a variety of recipes for lean lentil patties, I would like to remind you exactly why this legume is so useful. Indeed, it contains the largest amount of protein among plants, while there are very few calories in culinary products from it, lentils can serve as an excellent prevention of iron deficiency, contain a lot of folic acid necessary for the female body, as well as a significant amount of magnesium and fiber. And cutlets from this leguminous culture are not only healthy, but also very tasty. You can choose recipes for every taste: with mushrooms, lentils and rice, lentils and cabbage, or add potatoes.

My favorite recipe is very simple, its peculiarity is that I do not boil lentils, but soak them overnight. Agree, the less heat treatment we subject the grains to, the more useful microelements and vitamins we save. So, we take 200 grams of lentils, of course, thoroughly wash them, and then pour two or three glasses of cold water.

I usually do this in the evening, by the morning we will see that it has increased in size and swelled. Drain the water and grind it in a meat grinder or with a blender. Add two medium-sized onion heads, also chopped, and one raw egg, salt and spices to taste, and mix it all thoroughly. The dough turns out to be quite liquid, but since I wanted to make them not only tasty and as healthy as possible, but also with a minimum amount of calories, I did not add wheat flour.

I just took the dough with a tablespoon and placed it on a hot frying pan. I fried without a lid, because I was afraid that they would fall apart when stewing. And in a hot frying pan, the dough quickly “grabs” and the cutlets remain intact. They turn out very tasty, the whole family likes them, they taste a bit like fish cakes.

Lean lentil cutlets recipes with photos

It is always better not only to theoretically study the experience of hostesses by reading interesting recipes, but also to see the result in photographs, lean lentil cutlets with photos always inspire experimentation. That's how I once came across the image in the photo of a step-by-step recipe for green lentil and potato patties, it interested me very much.

According to this recipe, you need to take 200 grams of lentils, one medium-sized potato, celery stalk, onion, breadcrumbs, about 3 cloves of garlic and spices to taste. Just like in the previous recipe, we soak the lentils for 6-8 hours in cold water. First of all, finely chop the onion and celery, fry them in a small amount of vegetable oil in a pan for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic to these vegetables during the frying process.

We combine the fried vegetables with lentils, add spices and grind with a hand blender. Why manual? The fact is that this way the dough from this cereal does not turn out to be too liquid, I came to this conclusion experimentally.

Three potatoes on a fine grater and add to the prepared mixture, salt and form cutlets. We take about one tablespoon of dough, put it in a bowl with breadcrumbs and form cutlets. Then fry them in a skillet. A variety of sauces, such as mushrooms, go very well with these cutlets.

Recipes for cooking cutlets are very diverse. My friend has her favorite and proven recipe. She cooks lentil patties with rice, she's just great for my taste. How to make such meatballs? Here are the ingredients needed for them: one and a half cups of lentils, one cup of rice, one carrot.

Spices give a special taste to this dish: 1 teaspoon of asafoetida, half a teaspoon of turmeric, one teaspoon of cumin, 2 teaspoons of salt and half a teaspoon of ground black pepper. To make her cutlets, a friend also uses not boiled, but lentils soaked for 6-8 hours. She has her own special way of cooking rice, she tries to cook it so that it turns out crumbly.

To do this, a little vegetable oil is added to an enameled, well-heated pan and well-washed rice is placed there, fried for 3 minutes, then two glasses of water and a teaspoon of salt are added, the rice is cooked under a closed lid on minimum heat for 20 minutes. While the rice is cooking, you need to rub the carrots on a coarse grater and lightly fry it in a pan until soft.

After the rice is cooked, combine rice, lentils and carrots together, add all the spices and grind in a food processor. Please pay attention, unlike my favorite way of chopping lentils with a hand blender, my friend prefers a combine, she grinds all the ingredients very finely and believes that such minced meat is better for making cutlets.

Dear friends, you choose for yourself which way you consider more acceptable. We form cutlets, for this it is better to dip the palms of water, the dough does not stick to wet fingers.

Another innovation - instead of breadcrumbs, a friend uses wheat bran - it's tasty and healthy. So, raw cutlets sprinkled with bran are fried over high heat in a large amount of vegetable oil. It turns out very tasty, I recommend.

More meatball recipes for you:

Lean lentil cutlets in the oven

Cooking in the oven contributes to a better preservation of useful micro and macro elements, vitamins, and I have already mentioned how many of them are in lentils, lean lentil cutlets in the oven are also easy to make and very tasty. I bring to your attention one of the recipes for which green lentils are used.

This recipe caught my attention because of the use of white cabbage and ginger in it. The combination of flavors is very pleasant. So, for their preparation, you need to take 150 grams of green lentils, a little, no more than 120 grams of cabbage, one carrot, one onion, one egg and one tablespoon of chopped ginger root. From spices, you can choose dried herbs, ground black pepper or add your favorite spices.

In this recipe, boil the lentils, well-washed lentils are placed in a saucepan and poured with water, it should cover the grains by about two fingers. While the lentils are cooking, put chopped ginger, black pepper and dried herbs in a well-heated pan with vegetable oil, all this is lightly fried, all these spices will give the future dish a wonderful aroma.

Finely chopped onion and cabbage, grated carrots, fry in a pan, then combine with boiled lentils and spices. We grind all the ingredients in a convenient way and form cutlets from the minced meat. We place them on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil and bake for 10-15 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Very tasty and healthy meatballs are obtained.

For all previous recipes, we used green lentils, but they can also be red, what's the difference? The fact is that red or brown lentils do not have a shell. Such lentils are also called Egyptian. It cooks very quickly and is especially useful for making soups or purees.

Green lentils are a slightly immature grain and legume. It is also called French. It keeps its shape perfectly and is often used in the preparation of a variety of salads, cutlets from it are also prepared more often. But red lentils can also make great meatballs.

The secret of the unique taste of cutlets according to this recipe is the use of nutmeg pumpkin, you can, of course, replace it with potatoes, but pumpkin is much more interesting. For two hundred grams of red lentils, three hundred grams of nutmeg pumpkin are needed. In addition to these two main ingredients, we use several stalks of green onions, one small onion and two or three cloves of garlic.

As spices for red lentils, one tablespoon of cayenne pepper, one tablespoon of dried paprika, pepper and salt to taste are very suitable. We cook red lentils for no more than 10 minutes, so that the grains are in a state of semi-readiness and do not boil soft. The pumpkin must first be baked in the oven until soft, then, when it has cooled down, you can simply knead it with a fork.

We mix boiled lentils, pumpkin, spices, chopped garlic and onions and prepare minced meat from them, chopping them in our own way: in a food processor or blender, then we form cutlets. We put them in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Fry cutlets cooled in this way in a pan in vegetable oil for four to five minutes on each side. So we get cutlets with a very original taste.

These are just a few recipes for delicious and healthy lentil cutlets, there are a lot of ways to cook them. I hope you enjoy these recipes, and if you have not yet prepared such cutlets for your family, they will soon become one of your favorite dishes.

Hi all! With you Vika Leping, and today I will tell you how to cook vegan or lean cutlets from lentils. This is a recipe for Indian (and not only) cuisine, which will come in handy during Lent. I personally do not fast, but all my food resembles one big post, so I am very happy to write Lenten recipes for you, which you will undoubtedly appreciate.

By the way, lentil cutlets are not the first lean recipe on my blog. Other similar dishes you can see here. , which are constantly replenished with all sorts of sweets. I am subscribed to many English-language vegan pages on Instagram and to many YouTube channels, to be honest, they sometimes show such masterpieces that win the heart once and for all 😀

To be honest, I basically believe that Great Lent is proper nutrition. I am not a supporter of animal proteins, recently I could only afford fish occasionally, but after I went to the gym, I decided to temporarily return milk and egg whites to my diet in order to lose weight faster and more efficiently. However, I still hold the opinion that casein (milk protein) is very harmful. But that's just my opinion 🙂

Vegetarian lentil cutlets, even if you are not a vegan and not a religious person, you will definitely like it. They are incredibly tasty, nutritious, saturated with vegetable proteins, slow carbohydrates and other benefits. They are prepared quite quickly, fried, both in oil and without oil, so it is up to you to decide whether to add calories to the dish. They can also be baked in the oven.

So, vegetarian lentil patties, a step-by-step recipe with a photo, or how to cook lentil patties.

Ingredients

• - red - 250 ml
• - 500 ml
• - onion - 1 large piece
• - 1 PC
• - 1 bunch (I use cilantro, but use any)
• - 2 cloves
• - root - 2 cm
• - zira seeds - 1 tsp
• - or vegetable

Cooking method

Vegan Red Lentil Cutlets To Make Let's start by explaining how to cook lentils. Fill it with water (1 to 2), put on a strong fire and bring to a boil. Stirring, cook for 15-20 minutes over low heat until soft. Salt to taste 5 minutes before cooking. If the water does not have time to boil away, carefully drain it (this is important!) And remove the lentils from the heat. It should be soft, almost like mashed potatoes.

While the lentils are being cooked, peel the carrots, onions, garlic, ginger. Very finely chop the onion, herbs and garlic, and rub the carrots with ginger on a fine grater. We put the pan on medium heat, heat half a teaspoon of melted . I cook it myself, it's very simple, you can look and take note.

But you can replace it with another vegetable oil, but the essence of Ghee is that it does not become toxic when heated. Put zira in the pan, after half a minute - ginger and garlic, after 15 seconds - onions and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Cooking lentil cutlets will consist of several stages.

We shift the fried vegetables into lentils, salt, pepper, put greens and mix thoroughly. We put the lentil "mince" in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool down a little, and the lentil cutlets (lean) are easily molded without burning your hands.

We take out the lentil mixture from the refrigerator.

Addition! Several people in the comments wrote that their cutlets did not hold their shape. Most likely, the stuffing fell apart due to insufficiently evaporated or drained water after cooking the lentils. But if the same story happened to you, don't be upset, just add flour, semolina or starch. Add one spoon at a time, mix and look at the result.

We make vegetarian cutlets from medium-sized lentils with a thickness of 1.5 cm. Although, you can make any size you like, the main thing is that the thickness should not be too large. If the stuffing sticks to your hands, moisten them with water. But I don't have lip.

We put the same pan again on medium-high heat and, if desired, put more ghee or vegetable oil. I fry myself in a dry frying pan, because I count calories, and oil increases them at least twice 😀 And I fry in oil for my Sergey. On both sides until golden brown, 2 minutes each! With butter, of course, the crust will be more ruddy. You can also bake cutlets at a temperature of 220 degrees for 10 minutes.

That's all! Lentil cutlets, the recipe of which has come to an end, are ready, serve with your favorite side dish. It could be , or vegetables that are closest to me. Pictured is my favorite . Preparing is also very simple, read.

Let me quickly summarize!

Quick Recipe: Vegan or Lean Lentil Cutlets

1. Pour lentils with purified cold water, put on high heat, bring to a boil, cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes until soft and tender, 5 minutes before turning off, salt to taste.
2. We cut the onion, garlic and herbs very finely, rub the carrots and ginger on a fine grater.
3. We heat the pan over medium heat, put half a spoon of tea oil Ghee or vegetable oil, fry the cumin seeds, after half a minute - garlic and ginger, after 15 seconds - onions and carrots.
4. Saute vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.
5. We mix the fried vegetables with boiled lentils, add salt, pepper, chopped greens, mix thoroughly and put in the refrigerator, covered with cling film, for 10-15 minutes, so that the minced lentils cool down.
6. We take it out of the refrigerator, sculpt medium-sized cutlets, 1.5 cm thick (moisten your hands if the minced meat sticks).
7. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat, add more ghee if desired, and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes.
8. Serve to the table with .

Now you know how to cook lentil cutlets and lentils themselves too. The word lentil has come up in my recipe so many times. Rye is rye, oats are oats, lentils are lentils 😀 Oh well. And Sergey and I will soon go to Lviv, and then to Transcarpathia for a whole week to take a walk and enjoy nature 🙂 We are taking a vacation, it's time to travel a little. Oddly enough, we have never been to Lviv, we really want to quickly go and see this wonderfully beautiful (according to eyewitnesses) city. Have you ever been to Lviv?

But my recipes will not stop coming out, I have everything prepared, so stay with me! Amazing whole wheat flour muffins with blueberries are waiting for you! And others By the way, see the link. Be sure to stay with me , it's free! In addition, when you subscribe, you will receive as a gift a collection of full-fledged recipes of 20 dishes that are prepared very quickly, from 5 to 30 minutes, which will save a lot of your time! Eat fast and tasty - it's real!

And Vika Leping was with you! Try to bring my recipe to life, share with your friends what can be cooked from lentils, put likes, leave comments, rate, tell what you did and remember that everyone can cook deliciously, that you are more talented than you can imagine and of course enjoy your meal! I love you, be happy!