Lentil Fritters

Name: Lentil Fritters
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients: 30 ml/2 tbsp couscous; 2 large or 3 small onions, chopped; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; salt and ground black pepper; large pinch of cayenne pepper or ½’1 fresh green chilli, seeded and chopped; 50 g/2 oz/½ cup gram flour; 5 ml/1 tsp baking powder; lettuce leaves and chopped fresh red chillies, to garnish; mint sauce, to serve (see Cook’s tip); 120 ml/4 fl oz/½ cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro); 30 ml/2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh root ginger; 1.5–2.5 ml/¼’½ tsp ground turmeric; 2.5–5 ml/½’1 tsp ground cumin; 3–5 garlic cloves, chopped; 250 g/9 oz/generous 1 cup red lentils, soaked overnight

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Lentil Cookbook

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2016

About

These spicy red lentil fritters come from India and are cousins of falafel. It is best to soak the lentils beforehand, as they are made into a soft purée at the beginning.

Ingredients

250 g/9 oz/generous 1 cup red lentils, soaked overnight
3–5

Asia
India
Side dish
Vegetarian
Spicy

Method

Drain the lentils, reserving a little of the soaking water. Put the chopped garlic and ginger in a food processor or blender and process until finely minced (ground). Add the drained lentils, 15–30ml/1–2 tbsp of the reserved soaking water and the chopped coriander, and process to form a purée.
Add the cumin, turmeric, cayenne or chilli, 2.5ml/½ tsp salt, 2.5ml/½ t