Attempt at Lentil "Sausage" Patties and Grocery Store Confessions

Hope that title didn't scare anyone.  As soon as I typed it I remembered that old HBO series "Taxicab Confessions."  I didn't ever watch it, what with being a young teenager at the time and not blessed with premium cable channels, but from what I understand there were some pretty saucy doings in yonder program.  We're keeping it clean here at the Housewife, unless you find lentils exciting in an after-dark kinda way.  And if you do, that's between you and your grocer's dry goods section.

Speaking of grocers, I have to admit that I adore supermarkets.  I have a lot of love for the local produce store, and the natural foods stores in my area are a constant source of happiness and bankruptcy.  But there's just so much great stuff to be had at Publix.  Like processed soy breakfast sausage.



Although I've yet to find a ready-made bacon strip substitute that meets my standards, I do love me some soysage.  Recently I've been eating way too many Morningstar Farms veggie sausages.  The spicy ones are breakfast crack.  That much corporate soy can't be good for you, though, so I decided to try to find a nice high-fiber, low-ish carb option.

I found a contender over at the Lea House blog.  This place appears to be a delightful little B&B in the United Kingdom, and if I ever make it to the Wye Valley I'll definitely check it out.  Caroline kindly posted a recipe for spicy lentil cakes, and she mentioned in the notes that she serves them on the side with a vegetarian English breakfast.  This looked like a good starting point.    

I made up a batch of my own patties using a mix of red, white, and French lentils, onion, green pepper, and garlic.  These were all simmered together in a vegetable broth, then combined with some steamed mashed sweet potatoes, smoked salt, and Penzey's breakfast sausage spice blend.  After a brief chill, they were ready for shaping and grilling.

Here's my really embarrassing grocery store confession: you know all those little things they have hanging from the shelves as you walk the aisles?  You know, cereal containers shaped like a giant Cheerio, wooden spoons, dinosaur sponges that grow in warm water, all that sad crap that surely no one EVER buys?

I do.  I am currently the proud owner of several things I found on shelf-hangers,.including spice jars, a dinosaur-shaped sandwich cutter, a jar opener, and a juice box holder for the Bean.  They all work fairly well, too.

I also go this from the impulse-buy shelf hanger.  It's a burger patty press.

But lined with a cut-open zipper bag, it becomes a dandy sausage shaper.

I griddled these up in my cast-iron skillet.  See those winsome little grill marks?  That's thanks to my burger press!

These were pretty good, but they are a little mushy due to the lack of binder.  I think I'll wait on releasing my version of the recipe for a bit.  I want to throw  in a little vital wheat gluten or a bit of oat flour and see what happens.  It'll raise the carb count, but as you can see from the nutrition information, that's not much of a concern.  16 carbs per serving and 5 grams of fiber is pretty darned decent for a two-ounce serving.  With a little bit of tweaking, I think this will be a keeper.

Just like my dinosaur sandwich cutter :)

Rough Nutrition Information (calculated at food.com):  Calories 88.1; Total Fat 0.2 g;  Saturated Fat 0.0 g;  Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g;  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1;  Trans Fat 0.0 g;  Cholesterol 0.0 mg;  Potassium 234.2 mg;  Magnesium 25.9 mg;  Total Carbohydrate 15.4 g;  Dietary Fiber 5.8 g;  Sugars 2.3 g;  Protein 4.7 g