• Put the lentils in a saucepan with the water
• Simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the lentils are soft and the water mainly gone. Keep an eye on them, we don't want them to stick
• Click here to start a 10 minute timer
• Open the tins of beans and tip into a sieve. Now run under the tap to rinse away all the sauce. If you want to keep the sauce for use in your next soup or casserole, drain them into a bowl first before rinsing under the tap.
• Tip the rinsed beans into a bowl and mash them with a fork
• Chop the onion quite finely
• If you don't have any breadcrumbs stashed in the freezer, make them now from slices of bread. Grate the slices, or chop, chop, chop them until very fine. Or use a stick blender etc
• Add everything to the bean bowl and give it all a good mix. If the mixture is a little wet to hold it's shape, add a few more breadcrumbs. If it seems to dry, add a tblsp of water
• Now divide your mix into 8 equal sized amounts and shape into burgers. I use a cheap burger press I got from Lakeland decades ago. It's a useful tool for this kind of thing. Similar to this one
• Rest the burgers in a cool place until ready. Or wrap them and freeze. Be gentle, they're very soft
• When you're ready to eat, put a little oil in a frying pan, place your burgers in and fry gently for a few minutes until golden. Flip over, add a little more oil, just a tsp, and cook the other side. Serve immediately

Serving Suggestions

• We had ours with some home made oven chips and a bit of salad - a bit of broccoli, grated carrot and a little fine chopped yellow pepper, dressed with the rest of the juice from the lemon and some rapeseed oil
• You could go the whole burger hog. Toast some burger buns, spread with mayo, lettuce, tomato slice and sliced gherkin and sandwich your burger in the halved bun
• Or have with a jkt potato, and some cooked veg or salad