my new boyfriend

There is a gentleman vendor at the farmer’s market who appears to be in his seventies. For the past two weeks, following enjoyable chats about the deliciousness of grilled peaches and nectarines, he has given me free fruit.

It is by far the best relationship I’ve ever had.

I love nectarines. This crop is especially great, and Nectarine Man confirmed this, and said it was because it’s been dryer than usual and this makes them sweeter.

Something else I love: veggie burgers. Veggie burgers are delicious and convenient. Veggie burgers are also stupidly expensive. So I made my own!

Lentil Burgers

1 cup lentils
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup walnuts
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 green onions, roughly chopped
1/4 cup oats
2 T ground flax
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine lentils and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat and simmer for forty minutes. Remove lid, and allow lentils to cool.

Meanwhile, combine carrots, green onion, and walnuts in a food processor, and pulse until everything is finely minced.

Then add oats, flax, and spices, and pulse again until incorporated.

Finely, add lentils and pulse, scraping down sides with a spatula, until lentils are incorporated (this takes less time than you would think).

Form lentil mixture into eight patties, and voila, lentil burgers!

Burgers that you want to make for later can be individually packaged and frozen.

    

Cook patties on a sprayed nonstick skillet on medium heat until browned to your liking- about twenty minutes total, flipping every five minutes or so.

This looks ridiculous- like a bagel with jelly, right?! It is in fact a bagel thin, the closest thing I had to a bun, and my burger is accessorized with arugula, and, keeping with the lentil Indian theme, peach chutney. If you can, I highly, HIGHLY recommend pairing this with chutney. Oh man oh man oh man.

Rounding out dinner was a yummy yummy thrown together salad: corn, red onion, heirloom tomatoes in both yellow and red, and avocado.

I thought about dressing but was just like “Eh, avocado makes fat and tomato makes acid.” And indeed, the lovely veggies dressed themselves.