Rice and Lentil Patty

Originally published January 10, 2019

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There are two things I got for Christmas that I want to share with you in this post. The first was a special book from my grandmother, bound in fabric, and with mostly blank pages. It was a cook book, a place to write down recipes to pass on to my children. It already had a small handful of recipes in it, ancient family history finally taking on written form.

Might I just add that I SUCK at cooking. I have literally burnt water (or cooked it to the point of the pot going black and their being no water left). Chances are my kids will get the book with very minimal additions from me. But at least they’ll get the book (new goal: don’t lose the book).

The second thing I got that I want to mention was a food processor (otherwise called a hand blender, I believe). Years and years ago, I spent the summer at my Aunt’s. She had a food processor similar to this one, and made some nice food using it (also made some not nice minced goop for the animals in her care, but we won’t go there). I remember coming back from my trip to mum’s, getting out her food processor, only to have it sputter into smoke and die almost instantly.

My mum isn’t the greatest cook either, so she really didn’t care and I don’t think she ever replaced it.

But moral of the story is: I have a recipe to put in this book! And now I have the kitchen equipment to do it. So I gave it a go, and it sort of turned out okay. It’s super simple, and doesn’t really have much in the way of specific instructions, so here’s the recipe for all of you:

1 ½ cups of rice lentil mix

1 ½ litres of vegetable stock

I use Australia’s Own Organic Vegetable Stock, it’s cheap, and vegan friendly, and tastes quite nice. The chicken and beef flavours are also vegan, if there’s any other non-meat eaters like me out there that want a little variety in flavour.

Simmer for 30 mins

Drain and set aside

I drain the stock into a pot to reuse later (for a second batch of patties or maybe some soup).

1 diced brown onion

Grated ginger and garlic

Saute

I used peanut oil for all this, because I love peanut butter and peanut oil (but not peanuts), but if you want to avoid oil then you can use a bit of the stock from before (I’ve done this when I ran out of oil). That’s if it needs help, sometimes the onions are juicy enough on their own.

Add smoked paprika and ground cumin

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

½ cup of bread crumbs

Add in the rice and lentil mix

Process ½ the mix to a paste

Make into patties with a damp hand

Fry until golden

Now, mine didn’t turn out brilliant like my Aunt’s did. First of all, I couldn’t find the packets of rice and lentil mix she used. I finally settled for a packet of rice, and a packet of dried lentils. What I didn’t plan for was that the rice would take FOREVER and the lentils would cook super quick. So in the end I had over cooked lentils and undercooked rice. But it was okay.

To stop you guys doing the same mistake, I recommend adding the rice first and the lentils

second. I also think it needed more rice than lentils (I did a half/half mix), but maybe if the lentils were so mushy from over cooking it might have turned out better, so I’ll have to see next time I cook it.

Also, spend a little bit of your effort chopping the onion. I hate chopping onion, and with watering eyes I failed to find the knife sharpener. I ended up practically crushing the onion because our cutting knife was so blunt, and it definitely wasn’t evenly chopped or fine in any way. But I didn’t really notice in the end result, and I don’t usually like onion, so I wouldn’t worry too much.

I feel like it needs another spice or herb, but I haven’t placed it yet. If I do, I’ll let you know! But already my brain is considering different possibilities. Like what if I add curry powder and make curried patties? I’ll take it under consideration.

I did finally have an end result, and my partner was thrilled with it. I think I was too judgemental and critical of my own work for a first attempt. Either that or my pregnancy hormones decided to make it taste a lot worse than it actually was (maybe I did cook up a masterpiece after all!). But it was healthy and filling, and I was happy with the result overall.

Might I add, I was super pleased with my little gizmo gift. Not that my experiences with these hand blenders have been good in the past (since we all know I failed miserably), I was definitely satisfied with this gift. For one, it didn’t spark up, explode or concoct any amount of smoke or foul odour. It was also much quieter than I expected (my partner didn’t even hear it in the next room), and a good weight to hold in my hand (solid, but not heavy, if that even makes sense). And I like the other bits that came in the box. The cup was handy for me during this recipe, but since I’ve never owned a whisk before (isn’t that what a fork is??) I’m semi excited to finally be able to make an easy batter. Maybe the next recipe I upload will be cake!! Yum!

If you want a copy of the recipe to print out, click here.

If you want to check out the Hand Blender Set I used, click here.

And if anyone tries this recipe at home, let me know how it goes! What tips, tricks and ideas did you figure out? TIA!!!