I love meal-prepping these vegan lentil patties with Sriracha tahini sauce
to enjoy on salads, sandwiches, or even just on their own!
Lately I’ve been doing a little bit more meal-prepping, or rather mostly just trying to incorporate more whole foods into my diet instead of just eating IKEA veggie balls and spaghetti all the time. Although Eddie and I have eaten about 3 bags worth of veggie balls in the last month and a bit so I mean, I’m still eating them a lot. But these vegan lentil patties have been another form of vegan protein that’s chock-full of flavour and veggies to make me feel a little better about my life choices.
Meanwhile I’ve been recovering from two separate colds that I got over the past two week, the first I got from Eddie, which was basically a week long headache, some nausea, and a lot of sniffles, and the second from Janelle, manifesting as an annoyingly unsatisfying cough and more gunk coming out of my face than I thought possible. But that’s kind of gross and I apologize, because this is a food blog and I’m trying to make y’all hungry here.
I’ve been trying to stay calm and relatively unstressed through all the wedding planning and general life stuff happening, because the past year has been about managing my emotions and not letting them escalate to the point where I break out in stress hives and eczema. My skin has been relatively good since the first little outbreak immediately after my little stressful deep-dive into wedding planning. But I’ve got things under control. Or rather, I’m letting things get out of control without me having this constant need to keep everything in order. Life is messy, and I’m messy, so I’ve decided that I need to stop letting the little things take more power over me than they should. I’m allowing myself to not work myself into exhaustion. To relax and to take things one day at a time.
I like to think it’s working out so far. But I’m late on this blog post and recipe video so who knows if this is the right outcome?
A couple weeks ago I went out to the bar to reunite with some old camp friends, and I drank in public for the first time in a long time. I had about 8 drinks that night (over like 7 hours, so it’s not totally irresponsible), went out to a gay bar with my friends, and let loose for the first time in forever and it was fun, but tiring and exhausting at the same time. By 1 AM all I wanted to do was go home and take off my makeup but we stayed out until about 2:30 AM. I don’t -believe- I was hungover the next day but I definitely wasn’t feeling 100%. I was still pretty tired.
But that night reminded me that it’s okay to let go and let loose. To be a little more silly in public and to not stress out about things out of my control. It was a pretty good time :)
I think this year will be more of me just trying to let loose and be okay when things don’t go my way. Learning to cope, learning to just chill. Most people who first meet me don’t realize how high strung I actually am because I just sort of bottle it all up but clearly that wasn’t working that well for me, so here’s me turning over a new leaf.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this recipe, here’s a video of me making these vegan lentil patties while still totally delirious and sick if you want to see how I made them haha.
Vegan Lentil Patties and Sriracha Tahini Sauce
Ingredients
For the Lentil Patties
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp oil (I used sunflower)
- 1 large onion, diced (~1 cup)
- 2-3 medium carrots, diced (~1 cup)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
- 3/4 cup rolled oats (to be processed) + 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 packed cup cilantro, roughly chopped with stems
- 1 tsp kosher salt
Sriracha Tahini Sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 1 tbsp sriracha (use less if you don't like it spicy)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Cook the rinsed red lentils in a small pot with 2 cups water. Bring water to a boil then lower to a simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes until lentils have absorbed all the water and are soft, and almost a mashed potato consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a small pot over medium heat, cook onions and carrots with oil until translucent and soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne powder and stir to cook the spices. Deglaze the pan with a splash of water to get any of the caramelized flavour off the pan and then stir to cook off the excess water (about 1-2 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a food processor, process 3/4 cup rolled oats until it becomes a coarse flour (I show the texture in the video). Add the salt, onion/carrot/spice mixture, and chopped cilantro to the food processor and blitz until uniform in texture (not totally pureed but one consistent texture). You can add in the remaining rolled oats and blitz just to break them up a bit OR you can stir them in whole, totally up to you.
- Combine this processed mixture with the lentils with a spatula until incorporated. You may need to add water or more processed oats until you get a mixture that will hold its shape but isn't so dry that it'll crumble.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Scoop 3 Tbsp sized balls onto a lined baking sheet and flatten with wet or oiled fingers so your fingers don't stick to the patties.
- Bake for 15 minutes until the bottoms are browned, then flip and bake for 5 more. (If your oven runs cooler, you may need to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes). Remove from baking pans and let cool on a wire rack. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Sriracha Tahini Sauce
- Combine water, lemon juice, tahini, sriracha and salt and whisk together until combined and uniform. Thin with a little more water if you want to use as a dressing, keep as is for a sandwich spread or a dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Robin says
That recipe sounds awesome! I am definitely going to try it! For how long can you store the patties in the fridge? :)
Lisa Le says
I keep ’em in the fridge for about a week :) Granted they don’t usually last that long because we eat em too fast haha
Robin says
Thank you so much for replying! I am so excited to make these… and see how long they’ll last in my (well my family’s ) fridge :D
Teresa says
Thank you for sharing these! I’ve been hoping for the recipe since I saw you post them on instagram and in your what I ate video. I hope you continue to maintain a lower stress level. The more you consciously try to let go and not let things take over you, the easier it will be. Eventually it won’t take so much conscious effort. That’s what I believe, anyway. Keep enjoying yourself!
Patches says
Ermahgerd! These are amazing. I made them this evening. I’m wondering if they’ll freeze ok? Might not need to freeze them if my husband gets to them, though.
Paige says
Last night I wanted to make falafel but didn’t have chickpeas and luckily I stumbled upon this recipe looking for a solution. I made these with brown lentils and parsley in addition to the cilantro and they are amazing!! My three non-vegan roommates loved them and I am almost out of leftovers lol. I will be making these again
Aditi says
Made this last week and they turned out so good!! Didn’t use any oil and they still turned out amazing!! Thank you for the recipe!!
Jennifer says
I made these yesterday.
I think Iโll do these again and again because theyโre easy, delicious and store in the fridge extremely well.
Thank you for this recipe โค๏ธ
Jennifer says
do you think these would freeze well
Lisa Le says
Yep! :) Just seal em up tight
Kathy says
My family loved these! I could eat that sauce right out of the jar.
I made a big batch and used the Tahini-Sriracha sauce until it was out. Then we had them with BBQ sauce on buns. Then we finished up last night with pita pockets and added Indian spices to cucumbers, lettuce, tomato, and yogurt to eat the last ones.
Very versatile!
Lisa Le says
Oooh sounds great! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Lorraine says
This recipe made me like cilantro, something I previously hated with the passion of a thousand suns. I am making it for the third time today.
Jessica says
Hi Lisa,
I’d love to try this one out this weekend. My boys would definitely love this! :)
Thanks for sharing this healthy recipe.
Yeah, let loose girl! ;)
Cheers,
Jessica
Lisa Le says
It’s super kid friendly :) Hope you like it!
Amanda says
Hi Lisa thanks for sharing. I will definitely this out .it sound so delicious I pray that my daughter will love it.
Tori Waples says
I can’t wait to try your Lentil Patty recipe! Your video looks awesome. Thank you.
Geraldine says
Oh my gosh, this looks so great. Tomorrow I will make these and the sauce. YES, I have White People Tahine in my cupboard at all times, will try to find some liquidy stuff the next time I go into town, that be Barcelona. I live up the coast between there and Girona.
THANKS SO MUCH. Love your video, have signe up for your blog to await many more exciting Viet Vegan recipes.
Laura says
These turned out amazing! I customized the recipe for what I had on hand. I used red onion, left out the carrots, added sauteed portabella mushrooms, and cooked the lentils in a pressure cooker in vegetable broth spiced with berbere seasoning. I did have to bake the patties longer than the directions indicated but my oven is old. The tahini sauce is pretty tasty too. I would definitely make this recipe again!
Kwiyoung says
Delicious! Our oven broke so we had to fry them; and of course that was genius too though not as healthy!
Riti says
Awesome recipe! I added red pepper flakes, because we like it spicy! I have found it difficult to find patty recipes without egg, and the oats work wonderfully!
Rebekah zehrung says
Cam you use brown lentils that is what I have and looking for a recipe to use them in!
Lisa Le says
Brown lentils are a bit dryer and have more substance to them than the red lentils, so they might not stick together quite as well since the red lentils can be quite starchy. You can definitely use brown lentils, but you may need to add a flax egg binder :)
Not the Viet Vegan says
I tried this recipe last night with green lentils. I’m pretty sure it was my lack of knowledge on how to cook lentils that resulted in a completely different patty. I also used some oats that I think were rolled (*maybe gluten free, but not sure cause they were in back of my pantry in a Ziploc bag). Anyhoo, although I failed on the patty part, I still made the sauce because I am a newfound tahini lover, and I’m glad I did. I think I could drink that sauce if it was socially acceptable : ). I plan on frying the lentils tomorrow because the bits I ate were very flavorful! Oh, and so I can have a reason to eat that sauce!
Lisa Le says
Ohhh red lentils are split, so they don’t have the fibrous hull that green lentils do. It was probably really dry, especially with the addition of oats in that case. I’d recommend adding a flax egg to bind, vegetable broth or maybe some of the cooking liquid next time if you’re using green lentils! But red lentils almost have like a potato-like mealy texture because they’re shelled, so it needs the oats to bind it. Sorry it didn’t work out for you but I totally love that you like the tahini sauce too XD
Lara says
made these tonight!! so good
Mercedes says
I made these today…super delicious. I’m saving this recipe to serve this Thanksgiving. Thank you for posting it.
Marceil Calhoun says
What is the name of your brand of tahini?
Lisa Le says
I think the one i use is just called Tahina?