Lentil patties are excellent for a tasty and wholesome weeknight dinner because you can make them with little effort in less than 30 minutes.
We love their Mediterranean-inspired flavor with spices, fresh herbs, and garlic.
Introduction
If you guys are looking for a quick and wholesome dinner, look no further 👀 !
Lentil patties—or lentil fritters—are tasty and fulfilling, and best of all, they are SO EASY to make, with canned or cooked dried lentils.
These are strongly inspired by chickpea fritters and falafel, which we also recommend.
I know, we are obsessed with mediterranean food, we might need an intervention soon 🫠.
Basically all you have to do is blend everything in a food processor, choose your favorite cooking method like skillet, oven, or air fryer, and you are DONE!
Almost done actually. We think these are best with a sauce. You can go 🇬🇷 Greek with a garliky tzatziki sauce, or 🇮🇹 Italian with a rich marinara sauce.
Louise loves these next to to fluffy saffron rice (her new favorite rice dish). I’m more for stuffing a pita to the brim with lentil patties and sauce so that’s almost impossible to eat.
Ingredients
- Lentils: you can use green, brown, or French lentils. Both canned or cooked from dried.
- Flour: all-purose flour or chickpea flour.
- Egg: substitute 2 tablespoons of water for the egg.
- Grated parmesan: substitute 4 tablespoons nutrutional yeast.
- Fresh parsley: substitute fresh coriander.
- Onion
- Garlic
- Cumin
- Coriander
- Salt & black pepper
- Lemon: for serving them.
Instructions
1. Pulse ingredients
To a food processor, add drained lentils, flour, egg, grated parmesan, chopped parsley, chopped onion, grated garlic, ground cumin and coriander.
Season with salt and pepper and pulse a few times until the ingredients are coarsley chopped and well combined. Don’t overblend!
Tip: when making meatballs of any sort it’s best to either avoid garlic, or, if you like us can’t live without it, grate it very finely so that it cooks properly. I made a mistake here as you can see in the picture, I didn’t grate the garlic. The result is that we smelled like garlic for a week because the sliced garlic didn’t cook properly. Learn from our mistakes. Grate the garlic, best with a microplane 🧛.
Tip: Wanna make it egg free? No problem. Substitute 2 tablespoons of water for the egg.
2. Shape patties
Shape the lentil mixture into 12 small patties and put them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
You can do so by hand, pressing the mixture between the palms of your hands, or with a cookie cutter, press down the mixture with the back of a teaspoon.
3. Cook patties
PAN-FRIED: heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the fritters and fry them on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side, turning them once.
OVEN-BAKED: brush patties with olive oil, and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F or 200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
AIR-FRIED: brush your air fryer basket with olive oil to prevent the patties from sticking.
Arrange the patties in the basket, brush with oil, and air fry at 400°F or 200°C for 10 minutes or until golden brown (more brown than golden).
Honest opinion: the pan fried ones are the tastiest. Air-fried ones are also good. Oven-baked patties are less crisp and drier than the others.
Similar recipes
As you guys can tell from this site, we love lentils! They are easy and quick to cook and super versatile. If you liked these patties, we think you’ll like…
… they are all really eaasy recipes to make, wholesome, and just delicious. Enjoy 😊
Lentil Patties
Ingredients
- 2 cans (15 oz each) lentils sub 3 cups cooked lentils / or 1 cup dried lentils boiled in 4 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt until tender.
- 1 egg
- ½ cup parmesan grated
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour or chickpea flour
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic grated
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 4 wedges lemon
Instructions
- To a food processor, add 2 cans (15 oz each) lentils (drained), 1 egg, ½ cup parmesan, 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, ¼ cup parsley, 1 medium onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper.Pulse a few times until coarsely chopped and combined. Don't overblend.
- Shape mixture into 12 patties and arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.You can make the patties by hand or with a cookie cutter, press down the mixture with the back of a teaspoon.
- PAN-FRIED: heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the fritters and fry them on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side, turning them once.OVEN-BAKED: brush patties with olive oil, and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F or 200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.AIR-FRIED: brush your air fryer basket with olive oil to prevent the patties from sticking.Arrange the patties in the basket, brush with oil, and air fry at 400°F or 200°C for 10 minutes or until golden brown (more brown than golden).
- Serve with 4 wedges lemon to squeeze on top. They are delicious with tzatziki or marinara sauce, next to saffron rice, couscous, or with pita bread.
Video
Notes
- Garlic: grate it very finely so that it cooks properly. I recommend using a microplane grater. I made a mistake here as you can see in the picture, I didn’t grate the garlic. The result is that we smelled like garlic for a week because the sliced garlic didn’t cook properly. Learn from our mistakes. Grate the garlic, best with a microplane 🧛.
- Chop before processing: chop the onion and the parsley before adding them to the food processor to avoid large pieces in the patties.
- Lentils: we recommend green, brown, or French lentils for best texture. You can use canned or dried lentils that you previously cook in water until tender. Red lentils are not best for this recipe, however, if you want to use them cook 1 cup of dry split red lentils in plenty of lightly salted water or vegetable broth for about 10 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Drain excess water well.
- Parmesan: substitute nutritional yeast, about 4 tablespoons.
- Egg: substitute 2-3 tablespoons of water.
- Flour: substitute chickpea flour or breadcrumbs. Chickpea flour is gluten-free.
- Parsley: substitute chives, dill, or cilantro.
- Cumin: substitute smoked paprika.
- Coriander: substitute turmeric or a grating of lemon zest.
- Black pepper: substitute red pepper flakes or chili powder.
- Onion: substitute shallots or onion powder.
- Garlic: substitute garlic powder.
- Make ahead: This is an excellent recipe for meal prep, as the lentil fritters keep well for 3 days and can be frozen.
- Refrigerator: Keep leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 days.
- Freezer: Shape and freeze before cooking by arranging the patties on a baking tray with parchment paper, freeze for 2 hours, then transfer into a freezer-friendly bag to save space in the freezer.
You can also freeze leftover cooked lentil fritters. Let them cool down completely, transfer them to a freezer-friendly bag, and freeze for 3 months. - Thaw & Reheat: Defrost them in the fridge over several hours or bake them from frozen. Reheat in the microwave or air fryer.
I love it. Must give it a try
I’ve made these patties a couple of times. They’re quick to make, taste great, and they are versatile.
Could you use a blender if you don’t have a food processor?
Hi Linda, If you don’t have a food processor, we recommend using a potato masher. Using a blender will quickly (in seconds) turn your lentil batter into a lentil hummus. And that is incredibly difficult to shape and pan-fry afterwards 🙂
I hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions.
How much do you use with fresh cooked lentils?
Hi Eileen,
We made these lentil patties with cooked dried lentils, so you can follow the measurements in the recipe box (which for 10 patties is 3 cups of cooked lentils).
I hope this helps, happy cooking!
I’m always looking for ways to add more lentils to our diet. We absolutely love these patties! They are easy and very, very good. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Wonderful, Peggy! I’m very happy you enjoyed the flavor of the patties 🎉
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Kindest,
Louise
Just came across site.My gosh!! WOW!!! THANK YOU FOR INVITING US. 10 STARS. KNOWING IT COVERS EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN FOODS,And other areas, it is truly wonderful. All receipes are delicious. Again thank you
Thank you, Rosemarie, for your kind feedback 🥰
Thank you for the rescipe.
I love lentils and excited to try it.
These lentil patties were a hit. My husband really enjoyed them – saying he liked these better than other types of patties I’ve tried. We have the rest in the freezer so more meals to come. Thanks so much again for a very tasty recipe.
Very tasty patties ! Love the flavor and the nutrition of this recipe. Very easy to follow recipe, i did have to make adjustments given that my lentils were very wet straight from the canned. Next time around I would let it sit and drain for a while prior to using as directed. I had a really mushy mix that was hard to shape ( and I put a lot more chickpea flour in to adjust) , but the flavors was great!
I will also make these patties regularly.
Seguo da un po’ di tempo le tue ricette. Come voi seguo una dieta con molte verdure, pochissima carne, poco pesce e qualche uovo. L’humus di tofu che hai proposto tempo fa è entrato a far parte della mia cucina. Grazie per le ricette e per averle presentate in italiano.
Siamo molto contenti che ti sia piaciuta la crema di tofu, Rosaria.
Grazie per il tuo gentile commento e bouna giornata ❤️
Great recipe. They were very tasty even without the nutritional yeast ( which I didn’t have). I will be making these patties regularly.
I’m delighted to hear, Tania!! Thank you for taking the time to leave a tip and a comment here.
Kindest, Louise