Even if you don’t like eggplant, you will love these eggplant burgers, which really don’t taste like eggplant at all! Try them with Spicy Onion-Pepper Relish or your favorite burger toppings.
Leftovers give you two separate good feelings. When you first put them away, you feel really intelligent–“I’m saving food!” And then, after a month, when hair is growing out of them and you throw them away you feel…really intelligent–“I’m saving my life!”
–George Carlin
I often think of eggplants like George Carlin’s leftovers. When you buy one, you feel really good for bringing home this healthy, shiny vegetable. Then you put it into your fridge and forget it for a week or so, and when you pull it out, it’s all dull and sunken in places, and you feel…. Well, that’s where the comparison ends because, if you’re like me, you feel guilty that this once-beautiful food has gone to waste.
It used to happen to me more often than I want to admit until I hit upon a solution: If I haven’t used the eggplant after two or three days, I cut it in two and roast it in my toaster oven. Eggplant will last longer once it’s cooked, giving me time to figure out what new and adventurous recipe I want to create with it (though most of the time my cooking muse is silent and it becomes baba ganoush).
Baba will probably always be my favorite way to use roasted eggplant, but these veggie burgers and the pesto I posted earlier this summer tie for second place. Even if you don’t like eggplant, you will love these burgers, which really don’t taste like eggplant at all (ask E the Eggplant Hater, who enjoyed her burger even knowing it contained eggplant).
I used a new favorite ingredient to bind together the eggplant and lentils: Quinoa flakes are quinoa that has been steamed and flattened so that you can use it like oatmeal as a hot cereal. It cooks quickly and in this recipe doesn’t have to be pre-cooked at all.
But if you don’t have quinoa flakes, regular old-fashioned oats also work. Just pulse them in the food processor after measuring to chop them up a little (no need to turn them into flour.)
If you’re not a curry lover, try changing the seasonings to suit your taste. The ingredients go well with chipotle and chile powder or thyme, basil, and oregano. Have fun and be adventurous!
One note: The batter is wetter than most veggie burgers’, so I form the burgers in a hot skillet and pre-brown them before baking or air frying them. Forming them into patties with your hands can be messy, so I advise placing a ring mold into the skillet, filling it to about 1/2-inch thick, and lifting it off to use again. You may think that the batter will never thicken up, but it does, creating a meatier texture than you might expect.
Like most veggie burgers, these will probably fall apart if you try to cook them on a barbecue grill, but once they’re baked, they hold together well and can be reheated on the grill, making them a perfect food to bring to a Labor Day picnic.
Even dogs love them! 😉
Curried Eggplant, Lentil, and Quinoa Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant (*see Notes below)
- 1 cup cooked lentils
- 3/4 cup quinoa flakes or rolled oats (Chop old fashioned oats in food processor after measuring and before using.)
- 1/2 small onion minced
- 2 cloves garlic cloves minced or pressed
- 2 teaspoons potato starch, corn starch, or arrowroot
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (spicy or mild)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar (or other sweetener, optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
Suggested Tools
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Remove the top of the eggplant and cut it in half lengthwise. Place it cut-sides down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mat. Bake for 25 minutes or until the eggplant is completely sunken in and tender. Remove to a shallow dish and allow to cool completely. (You can do this even several days in advance and store in a covered container in the refrigerator.)
- Once the eggplant is cool, discard any liquid that has accumulated and scrape the pulp from the peel. Place the pulp in a food processor and pulse a few times to make a coarse puree. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix very well and allow to stand at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Wet your hands and form eggplant mixture into patties about 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. (You can also form the burgers by spooning the mixture into the pan and using the back of a spoon to shape it into patties or by placing a ring mold into the pan and molding the mixture inside it.) Cook three or four at a time until well browned and then carefully flip over and brown the other side. Remove with a spatula and place each burger on a prepared baking sheet for oven baking or preheated air fryer basket.
Oven Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon baking mat. Place the browned burgers onto the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until burgers are cooked through.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 400F. Place the browned burgers onto the hot air fryer basket and cook for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through. Exact time will depend on your air fryer.
- Serve with traditional hamburger condiments or with Spicy Onion-Pepper Relish, below.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
I enjoyed the flavor of mild curry with the lentils and eggplant and, being the heat-lover that I am, spiced them up by serving them with this fiery relish made from onions and a jalapeno pepper from my garden.
Spicy Onion-Pepper Relish
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion , finely diced
- 1 hot pepper (I used red jalapeno), seeded and minced
- 1 teaspoon spicy smoked paprika (or 3/4 tsp. smoked paprika and 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and allow to stand for 30 minutes for flavors to blend. For hotter relish, add extra cayenne pepper to taste.
Nutritional info is approximate.
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Heather @ Side of Sneakers
These sound fantastic- I love the idea of the spicy onion pepper relish. It’d be a great addition to every burger I can think of!
Rebecca Redus
These look wonderful! I love eggplant and curry so I think I’ll be trying these soon!
Helen
Can’t wait to try these out, (following a hunt for quinoa flakes)!
Adi Lucas
This sounds really good¡¡¡ and I DO LOVE the ingredients. At a first glance I thought you were using whole cooked quinoa, then I read about the flakes. I´ll look for them. If not possible to find, I´ll try using cooked quinoa.
Thanks for sharing¡¡
SusanV
Adi, I’m afraid that whole quinoa won’t work in this. It probably won’t cook all the way and definitely won’t bind like the flakes. If you can’t find the flakes, try quinoa flour or oat flour (oatmeal ground in the blender). Use a little less than 3/4 cup.
DeeDee
Susan: Another spectacular recipe! So, are you saying I can grind whole quinoa into flour like so many other grains which would make this meal so much more economical? My Sweetie says, “Susan, as always you rock!
SusanV
Thanks to you and your Sweetie! You can definitely grind quinoa into flour (or buy quinoa flour) but I’m not 100% sure you can replace the quinoa flakes in this recipe with the flour. Remember, quinoa flakes are steamed, so there’s some cooking going on before they ever make it into the recipe. They soak up the liquid from the eggplant really well, and I’m not sure that quinoa flour would have the same effect or texture. But let me know if you try!
Jen
Wow these look great! just wondering, how do you get the perfect burger shape like that? we try with hands, backs of spoons etc, and even bought a burger-shaper-thingy to help, but we find it totally useless, burger mixes just fall apart in it.
SusanV
Jen, these burgers are very “sticky”–they don’t fall apart like others. I formed them in two ways: (1) Using wet hands (very important with a sticky mixture) to form the patties and (2) Using a 3-inch diameter open baking ring set on the skillet and filled with the burger mixture (you then lift it off and use it for the next patty). In the photos, the one in the pita bread was made using method #2, and the one in front on the baking sheet was made using method #1.
Jade
This is great! I have two small eggplant in the refrigerator I need to use up, as well as a box of quinoa flakes I had no idea what to do with! Thanks 🙂
Amber Shea @Almost Vegan
Haha, this is so timely—I just threw an eggplant out this morning, lamenting its demise! I wonder if I could have used it for this…I love anything curry, and anything with lentils, so this has my name written all over it.
GabyE
This looks absolutely delish! I love veggie burgers that use quinoa, it’s such a wonderful grain. I’m starting a new food blog at iamgabyepifano.blogspot.com and was wondering if you could pay me a visit? I haven’t posted any recipes yet, but will soon! We can be blog friends?
moonwatcher
Hi Susan,
These look great–I will definitely be trying them. I have a feeling they are going to be another favorite gluten free burger of mine, like your tofu beet burgers are. I cook a lot with quinoa flakes and love the result. I’ve subbed them for the oatmeal in your red bean burgers and they worked great in those, too.
Thanks for the recipe!
xo
moonwatcher
ps: by the way, voted for you. . .that survey is a whole lot of fun to take, as surveys go–hope you win!
Mary
Thank you! Thank you! I needed a new recipe for eggplant 🙂 I just discovered baba ghanoush, but these look wonderful~ My sister is bringing over an eggplant tomorrow that she doesn’t know what to do with and guess what we’ll (me) be making with it, yep you guessed it. Yay
Tess
Wish I had a eggplant right now! Would make this tonight. Looks great.
Angela
Yummy! I’m definitely going to look for the quinoa flakes! I love quinoa but there’s only so much tabouli and pilaf one can eat…
Also, thank for providing the nutritional info on your recipes. I do like to watch my sodium. What application do you use to calculate this?
SusanV
I use a program called Living Cookbook to figure out the nutritional info. It’s available for a free 30-day trial at http://www.livingcookbook.com.
Melisser
I’m not a big eggplant lover, although I do like it. This sounds like the perfect way to use it!
Sarah
These look amazing. I love veggie burgers, eggplant and quinoa, so this is like a foodie threesome made in heaven for me.
Always love your ideas, Susan!
Jess
Wow- these look great. I’ve been thinking and browsing a lot re: burger recipes (lentils, quinoa, black beans, etc) and wouldn’t have thought of eggplant. My hubby is one of those who’s a bit finicky about certain textures, but if it’s worked into a patty, it’s all good. Thank you also for the Carlin reference- made me giggle. I miss him.
Magda
Wow looks great. I actually just made today Indian lentil and eggplant stew. Next time I’ll make some burgers.
Pam @ Cooking World
I like eggplants in a few recipes only, but as you said, this may go well with people who do not generally like eggplant so I am going to be brave and make it one of these days.
Pictures and your write up sold me on this! I had never seen quinoa flakes before, but looks like amazon is selling them and maybe whole food should have it.
jamie @ jamelafamela
I am SO trying these tomorrow using my leftover lentils from the other day! Thanks for a great looking recipe!
Paula
oh, I love such homemade colourful dishes!
Debbie@HealthSeekersKitchen
Your Curried Eggplant, Lentil, and Quinoa Burgers look so delicious and the photos are gorgeous. I just need to pick up some Quinoa Flakes & an Eggplant and I can make these this weekend. Great idea! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Virginie
These look so great !
Do you think I can freeze them for a later use ?
SusanV
I think they’d freeze just fine. I would have frozen some, but we ate them all up!
Virginie
Thanks ! I’ll try them !
Jenny Wright
They look absolutely gorgeous and have such a beautiful colour. I’m going to give these a try for my omni boyfriend tonight!
Shannon
Had these last night and they were DIVINE. I didn’t have any quinoa flakes, so I used oatmeal instead (pulsed in food processor first) but next time I will try the quinoa. We also wrapped ours in lettuce leaves with the onion relish and fresh tomato slices rather than pita bread, and it was absolutely delicious. I just had leftovers for lunch and I swear they’re even better the next day. Thank you!
Stylish1
I may be bias but I think almost anything in a pita with good toppings is yummy 🙂
rebecca
Yum! I have everything on-hand (even the quinoa flakes!)…this is going to be tonight’s dinner, with one little tweak. My son hates falafel and loves eggplant, so I am going to form the mixture into balls instead of patties and tuck them into ww pitas with a little cucumber raita.
Emma
I tried this, it was absolutely delicious! I will definitely pass this recipe on!
I’ve been following your blog for a little over a year now & using your recipes, and I’ve finally just created my own healthy eating blog.
Could you possibly add my blog to your list of recommended blogs so that i could spread the word of my blog because i know so many people view yours!
Thanks a ton & i will continue to follow =)
http://eatlikemee.blogspot.com/
ariel
Susan, my favorite way to cook eggplant is to slice into 1/4″ slices, dip in dressing (tahini is the best) and then dredge in nutritional yeast. Bake for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet and then flip and bake another 10 minutes. They melt in your mouth! This is only good if you like nutritional yeast, but I bet panko would be good too.
Lisa
That is a great idea. I would try it out.
Mary
I just made these tonight for my sister and her eggplant! We didn’t have time to get to the store with quinoa flakes, so used quick oats. Oh my goodness, these were awesome!!! I plan on making more and freezing some. Thank you for a great recipe 🙂
Widitya
hi Suzsn, your food lok very delicious, im amaze how u capture your food..
I have new post too on my blog, dont forget to visit it and leaves your sign
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cheers
Widitya
Veronica (lifewithnature)
I wonder if I could substitute quinoa flakes by rice flakes? Since my husband suspect an intolerance to soy, it’s been a while since we had burgers. But those ones looks so delicious and soy free!
Sagan
Thanks for the baking/grilling tip! These look really yummy.
Nicole
LOVE your site so much! I want to thank you loads for all the recipes you have shared, and your photography is absolutely beautiful. I just finished printing almost a dozen of your main dish recipes, and I’m so excited to try them this week! Thankk youuu!
Have a beautiful weekend!
Laura
Just found your blog! I LOVE IT! Thanks for putting all these delicious recipes up here to share – I will probably be trying almost all of them! Seriously!! They all look so good!
Lorraine
I just bought a box of the flakes this past week. I loved the picture on the front cover of the box, so decided it would be breakfast for me in the morning. I generally cook Quinoa for breakfast every morning but it takes a while, so this “instant” alternative seemed good to me…especially because of the protein content. WAHOOOOO! What a disappointment…as a breakfast cereal it tasted terrible. I went to their website to figure out the mixing ratio that I couldn’t find on the box…ended up just mixing it up until it looked a little like the cover. Have you ever tried the flakes for breakfast? Thanks for your post…now I will have a use for this product now as I hate to waste!!!
SusanV
I haven’t had it as a cereal (I’m not a breakfast person and even less a breakfast cereal person). I’ve mixed it into baked goods and into burgers, and they work very well in both. I hope you find a way to use it because it’s too expensive to waste!
The Sweetest Vegan
Look delicious, makes me want to make it right now
Emma
How do you determine the nutritional information to your recipes/ foods ?
SusanV
I use a program called Living Cookbook. http://www.livingcookbook.com
Joseph Van Buren
These were delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for another winner!
ElizabethS
We had these last night and the flavors were great, especially the Spicy Onion-Pepper Relish. I think I need to double the spices for us, as my paprika and cayenne must be pretty mild. This was a fabulous addition to the burgers!
Since only half my family really love my vegan lifestyle and cooking I am always on the hunt for fabulous recipes that will appeal to all of us (7 total!), not an easy task. Susan, this site has been a treasure, I hope you never tire of exploring the possibilities!
My past attempts at “burger” recipes have been met with some opposition, wanting them to be less soft and more substantial to bite into and chew. I really liked the idea of forming the patty and cooking it on the stovetop first before baking it, this helped in creating the burger greatly. I’m afraid I might have used too much eggplant though, because mine turned out very soft in the middle (even after baking them for longer than suggested) and fell apart as we were eating them. It was a delicious mess :o) I followed the recipe exactly, so I would love to try again and maybe use less eggplant and add some oats to bulk it up? Maybe add some other bean to it to increase the “meaty chewing” effect my older sons crave? We are highly sensitive to MSG in any form, so TVP is not an option. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again for all your recipes and great ideas! Love it, love it, love it!