gumboot burger

March 22, 2010 by Jill Thomas

Jill is owns Tin Can Web Marketing Agency & Rock Salt Restaurant and Cafe on Salt Spring Island.

This burger has been a best seller on the Rock Salt Restaurant and Cafe menu for a decade. It took us a long time to master the recipe because it’s difficult to make veggie burgers that hold together when you bit into them. That is why the key to success with this recipe is making the burgers the day before you want to serve them so they have time to set.

This burger is named for the ‘southenders’ on Salt Spring who love it the most, often order it with bacon and cheese, and are known for line dancing in gumboots. At a recent food industry conference celebrity chef David Adjey referred to this burger as idiotic with passionate urbanite disdain. This makes me cherish our gumboot burger even more. Enjoy!

In a rice cooker on the stove cook until rice and lentils are soft and water has evaporated:

1/2 cup of dry lentils
1/2 cup of rice
2 1/2 cups of water

Spread on a cookie sheet, put in fridge and let cool completely before proceeding with next step.

Combine the cooked lentils & rice with:

1/4 cup of dice garlic
1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
5 scrambled raw eggs
1 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
1/4 sundried tomatoes chopped (in oil is best)
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbled
1/4 cup capers (well drained and chopped)
1 cup of oats
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds roasted
1/4 cup of flour

Mix all the ingredients well and form the burgers. Make sure you make really tight balls before forming patties so that the batter is well stuck together.

Place burgers on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Leave them in the fridge overnight to set. If this is not possible keep them in the fridge long enough to totally cool down.

Then fry them in a pan with a little bit of butter until they are warm right through and brown on both sides.