Arabic Lentil Patties

Red lentils and burghul with lemon, mint and parsley.

Preparation time: 30 minutes (including 20 minutes to cook the lentils)

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups red lentils
• 1 cup burghul (cracked wheat)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 onion
• fresh parsley (to make 1 cup when chopped)
• fresh mint (to make 1/2 cup when chopped)
• 1 teaspoon virgin cold-pressed olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups water

Method

• Boil the lentils in the water for 20 minutes until cooked.

• Take off the heat but do not drain the water off.

• Add in the burghul and stir.

• Put a lid on the pot and leave aside till it cools and the burghul has absorbed all the water.

• Chop the onion, mint and parsley finely.

• Fry the onion in the teaspoon of oil and a little water.

• Add the tomato paste to the onion and cook for a further 2 minutes. Then take off the heat.

• Add the salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, mint and lemon juice. (Make sure you do not cook the spices or the flavour becomes bitter.)

• Add this mixture to the lentil and burghul and mix well.

• Leave it to cool then shape into small patties and refrigerate.

• Serve cold with salad.

These patties are also nice served warm, either just gently warmed as they are, or baked for 30 minutes at 150�C (300�F).

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