Lentil Hunt 2011: The Quest to make Lentil Fritter Pitas

Lentil fritters. Hmmmm. They sounded a little weird, but we're brave so we thought we'd give them a try. Man, are we glad that we did. SPOILER ALERT: they are delicious.

The recipe is simple enough. You use your food processor to make the lentil patties, fry them up, make a slaw of red cabbage and a sour cream based topping to go with it. Our only hitch came in preparing to make the recipe. I, for the life of me, could not find canned lentils. I walked around. I asked people. I looked quizzically at the shelves. I checked two different grocery stores, both of which did not have canned OR dried lentils (hence the post title). Finally, at the third store, I found them. Yeesh. Thank goodness the rest of the recipe was easy. 

Anyways, back to the cooking part. In a food processor, puree 1 can of the lentils with the cilantro, parsley, garlic, and cumin until nearly smooth. We didn't have fresh cilantro, so I used some cilantro paste (which is handy in a pinch) in it's place.

I realize the paste doesn't look very appetizing, but it definitely serves its purpose.

Transfer to a bowl and mix in the bread crumbs (we used panko), the remaining can of lentils, salt, and pepper.

Pre-transformation.

Mix together the cabbage with the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of the oil, salt and black pepper.

Red cabbage, soaking in the lemon juice.

In a different bowl, stir together the yogurt, crushed red pepper, and 1/4 cup water.This will thin out the sauce a little.

I'm a big fan of the Greek yogurt, and especially as a sour cream substitute.

Take the lentil mixture and form them into sixteen 1/2 inch thick patties. Heat 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil over medium-high heat. Cook the patties for 3 to 4 minutes per side. You can using the remaining tablespoon of oil if you make them in two batches (which I did). 

We had a few less than 16. I was a bit generous with the lentil patties.

We stuffed each pita with the patties, cabbage mixture, yogurt sauce, and topped it with fresh parsley (substitute for cilantro). 

That squash on the side looks a little sad. Let's go in for a close-up on the good stuff.

We went for the pocket pitas (you could do pocket-less and eat it more like a gyro). We put two patties in each and added the toppings.

YEAH. That's more like it.

I was pretty impressed with how this turned out. I absolutely love falafel sandwiches, and can't get enough of them. This tastes pretty darn close to falafel, and I feel a little better that it isn't deep fried. 

I will say that it is a little messy if the pita doesn't hold up with all those ingredients. Maybe that's why they suggested pocket-less -- so that the pita bread a little thicker. Either way, Paul and I both really liked them, and they are making their way onto our regular dinner rotation. 

Well, once I find more lentils.