Easy Lentil Polpette Recipe Kids Will Love

Lentil Polpette – Simple Italian Mini Burgers Full of Flavour.
Today I am cooking something a little different — lentil polpette, or Italian mini burgers. These simple, wholesome patties are full of flavour, with lentils, chard, herbs, and cheese coming together to make a delicious vegetarian dish. This is real cucina povera: humble ingredients, gentle cooking, and a result that feels like home. I make them together with Julie, and as always, things take their own natural turn, a few laughs, a few stories, and plenty of good food. Perfect for children or anyone looking for a lighter Italian meal, these lentil polpette are soft inside, crisp outside, and easy to make with either dry or tinned lentils.

Ingredients
500 g cooked lentils (tinned or soaked and boiled)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2–3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 handful chard or spinach, finely chopped
2–3 eggs
100 g mixed cheese (primosale, parmesan, or any melty cheese)
Fresh parsley or basil
3–5 tbsp breadcrumbs
Olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste
1 tbsp tomato purée (optional)

Cooking Instructions
Sauté the onion, garlic, and greens in olive oil.
Mix the cooled vegetables with lentils, cheese, eggs, herbs, and breadcrumbs. Shape into small patties and fry in olive oil until golden on both sides.

Simple, healthy, and naturally satisfying.
Buon appetito,
Francesco

00:00 Intro and the idea
00:35 Preparing the lentils
01:22 Cooking onions, garlic, and chard
02:20 Cooking together with Julie
05:15 Adding cheese and herbs
08:44 Mixing and shaping the polpette
11:23 Frying and tips for turning
13:37 Tasting and final thoughts

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Today I’m cooking uh something different. I’m doing some uh pulpet or if you like mini burgers using lentils. I’ll start with the lentils because I’ve already um precooked them. Here they are. Look. Um you can also use um thinned lentils. In the past, people have asked me, can you use thinned lentils? Absolutely. Make sure that they are properly drained. These ones here, I um soaked them overnight for 8 hours. And this morning I added a bay leaf, a little salt, covered them in water, and let them cook for about 20 to 25 minutes. Some people have actually asked me if um um it’s necessary to cook them or indeed pres them. So you need to cook them, of course, if they’re dry. Um not necessarily. And lentils is one of those things that you do not necessarily have to pre-oak. However, do read the instructions of your packaging because if they need to be presoaked, obviously that will be stated in your packaging. But the difference being even if they do not need to be pre-ocked, if you do so soak them overnight, they’ll become a lovely and tender and they’ll cook faster and they’ll taste a little bit more softer when when you eat them. So, they’re ready and uh I’ve allowed them to uh cool down. And I’ve drained all of the water and uh I’ll start on some of the other ingredients and then I can show you the process. I got a large frying pan on the go here. Large because I will be also cooking some greens. And I’ve just applied a little olive oil and this is a small onion. And everything is kind of small in terms of quantity because I’m making little pulp. But I’m going to chop this very very finely. So, here it is. Also, alongside my onion, I’ve already peeled a couple of cloves of garlic and I’ll chop them in little round circles just like this about 1 mm in thickness. Hob comes on and I’ll add them immediately. And I’ll t this on a medium temperature. In the meantime, I’ll get hold of some chard which I have picked this morning from the garden and has been soaking in water so that it washes properly. And I’ll give it a good rinse. And uh Julia was asking me, Julie is here with me by the way. Some some people have been missing and say where is Julie? Where is Julie? So she’s decided to join me today. So, she saw my big Chinese knife and she said to me, “I can never understand why you use such a big knife.” That’s why because uh when you’re doing jobs like this, it comes really, really handy. What do you use? Do you have a a knife like this? Well, I’ve managed for something much smaller for many, many years, dear. I just think you like the size of that thing. I know. You think you’re a proper chef when you use that. That’s what it is. No, I don’t. Quite the opposite. So, it’s important that you chop the vegetables nice and fine. And I’m going to add them on top of my onion and garlic. And here is another advantage of using a knife like this. Look, you can just use it to scoop things up. Wonderful. I will get you out. See, she’s already started. When I cook without Julie, I can do what I like. I can say what I like. There is nobody to actually put me in my place. But Jul is with me. She keep telling me off or keep telling me, “Oh, you’re not doing this right.” That is such a lie. Why are you so mean to me? No, I’m not mean. Actually, I’ll tell this down so you can hear it. Uh, my daughter and I and Gabriella have an ongoing joke because on one of the videos we made, I think it’s the lentils video. It was a lentil video we made back in January this year. And on a few occasions, Julie corrected my English. The reason why she correct corrects my English is because for years she’s been doing that especially with my reports and so on. I I work in finance and I used to write reports and she used to grammatically check them. And there was a a person I think it was a woman Julie made some comments and she said, “Oh, this woman is really annoying.” And then she made another comment. Oh, here comes that annoying woman again. So, we always laugh about that. Do you find Julie annoying? I don’t. Of course I don’t. I think she’s great. Yeah. Yeah, we are too lazy to go up to the house. So, I’m going to use this big cover here. Actually, it’s perfect. Look, it fits perfectly. Not bad at all. Cover the vegetables so they cook quicker. So, I’ve got my bowl on the scales and uh I’m going to be uh using about 500 g of lentils. Whenever I cook lentils, by the way, I always make more than what I need. I cannot see. Julia, you’ll have to tell me the measurement. Um I always make more than what I need because um they’re really really good for you and generally I end up with some then I sprinkle on salad or sometimes I just have them as they are. As I added a little salt to these they will be just delicious. All I need to do is to add some olive oil. Yeah. Literally 5 g off. 5 g off. 5 g off. There you go. Okay. So that should be 500 gish. So these are ready. Cheese next. And uh I’m going to use uh Italian cheese, but you can use any cheese you like by the way, as long as uh it’s nice and melty sort of cheese. So this is primosal. Um some cheese that I brought back from Sicily. And I’ve been using one of my favorites. I’ve been using it recently. And it has got a little bit of a salty taste, a bit like a a very mild pegorino, if you know what pegorino tastes like. But the difference is that it’s quite soft. It’s not as hard as picorino and it will melt very nicely. Of course, also you can use mozzarella or you can use provolone if you know what that is. Is another typical Italian cheese or if you have got access to cheddar for example or gouda or hidam use those also. But if you use um cheddar for example, make sure that it’s mature, not necessarily extra mature, but mature cheddar so that it gives a little bit of oomph to use a good English word. So this is my primosal and I will complement the mildness of my primosal with some saltness coming from some parmyo. So again, you can use pegorino and I’m combining two types of cheese because one is milder, the other one is a little bit stronger. So they balance each other out and they taste both very nice. Perfect. And here I’ve got a very generous handful of basil. Sorry, parsley from basil. You can use basil by the way. You don’t have to just use parsley which Julia has very kindly picked from the garden. And including the stems. I’ll just methodically go through and I’ll I’ll chop it inside and I will add to my ingredients. And uh you can use as much or as little as you like, but do put some in or put some herbs in. Also, you can um use rosemary. Yeah, this is what rosemary looks like if you have never seen one before. It’s also very good. But if you do use rosemary, make sure that you chop in little pieces. Otherwise, it can be quite annoying. It’s a little bit woody, isn’t it? It is a little bit woody. Yes. So, we’re done with the cheese. Next, I’ll move on to the eggs. Couple of eggs. And uh I’ll just uh put them in as they are, white and yolks included. I’m not going to add any salt because I’ve already salted the lentils and there is plenty going on with the cheese. However, I will add a generous amount of ground pepper. This is black pepper, but of course you can use any pepper you like or no pepper. Do ensure you keep your vegetables on a medium heat, otherwise they could burn. However, I think they’re nearly there. If you take a look, the chard has considerably reduced and shrunk in size. Oh, by the way, I should have said that you are not limited to using chard. If you can see me, you can also use um spinach if you like, including frozen spinach. Now, this is very optional. You do not have to, but um you do not have to add it, but if you do, it will add a degree of sweetness, which is absolutely lovely. some tomato puree about one table one say spoon that is and just before I turn it off actually I turn it off now and I’ll mix it in if you see I’m not actually cooking it I’m just uh ensuring that it releases its beautiful flavor with my chard and I leave this now to cool down for about 3 4 minutes until it’s uh warm so that it doesn’t cook my eggs so I’ll see you in about a few By the way, if you want to know when your vegetables are cooked, you will see that they’ve shrunk by a lot. But um if like me you are cooking the stems from chard, just test them and they are a little bit al dente. So they are perfect, but make sure that they are small because obviously we’re going to be making sampeta. And this is cool enough for me to be able to add it to my mix without the risk of cooking the eggs now. And I’m keeping the pan as it is. I’m not going to wash it as I will be using to cook the petta later. So there is no need. And actually it’s quite good because it’s got some beautiful flavor. So my very last ingredient or ingredients is going to be um some chocolate. How lovely. Chocolate is chocolate. No, it’s not. It’s bread crumbs. And I’m going to be adding um three to start with. And the reason why I’ve left them for last is because uh that is something I can use to moderate the texture and consistency. And I’m going to delve in with my hands. But before I do that, I will add also a little olive oil. And uh between the eggs and Oh, thank God that’s quiet now. That’s got his fan in my finger makes such a such a noise. So, I’m going in with my hands and I’ll start mixing everything together and I’ll be able to see the consistency what it’s like and then establish if that is good enough for me to make some petta. I’m going to ask Julie to help me and add some more breadrumbs whilst I mix it. Julie, do you mind? So that I don’t have to wash my hands. And at the moment is a little bit too liquidy, so it’s not good enough. So, another couple, please. Sorry if the camera wallops a bit. There you go. Okay, we have decided that there are enough bread crumbs and I don’t want to make it too bready, but uh it’s still not the consistency I want. So, I’m going to add another egg. And there we go. Egg number three goes in. And I’ll mix it in. And I’m comfortable now that it will be good enough. Effectively, the egg and the cheese, they act as my glue agents. And um this is uh very good actually. I’m very pleased with it. It’s a little bit sloppy, but that’s uh that’s fine. It’s a technical word, sloppy. So now the next job is to decide how big are you going to be making your petta. Some people make them this big. Some people make them half. I’ve got quite a lot here. So I’ve decided that actually I’m going to make them almost like burger size, but a lot thicker. Of course, the thicker you make them, the longer will take to cook. So just flatten them up a little bit like a small very small pancake like this. Make make sure that you got the right consistency. I’ve added um more olive oil at the bottom of my pan. Turn it on medium. And I’ll start cooking them. So I’ll just place them inside. Doing sure that the oil has got some heat underneath before you start of course. And this might not look very elegant, but uh the benefit of home cooking, of course, is the taste, not necessarily the look. And actually, I think they look fabulous, but some people might not agree with me. Okay, so I’ve managed to place five inside my pan. I’ll turn the temperature up on medium now rather than low as you do need some heat underneath. And do ensure that you got enough olive oil at the bottom. And uh I’ll leave them untouched doing their own thing otherwise I’ll mess them about and the egg will obviously help bending them together. And it will take about five minutes and then I’ll turn them around and I’ll show you what they look like. They smell really really good. By the way, I do. So to turn them around, let me give you a little tip. Get a couple of spatula. one of the spatula, turn it the other way around and place it at the back of your uh call it a dagger and then gently go underneath with the other one and then flip it so that it is on top of your spatula just like this. And you’re using the back of your spatula as a way to help you and then just slide it down. And because the egg, as I mentioned before, is your glue agent, this kept everything beautifully together. I’ll do it again with this one here and then you will see what I mean. Flip it. And look how beautiful they look. Beautiful crust. And they are almost ready. And then the only thing to cook if you think about it is the egg because everything actually is cooked. So I’ll flip them all. I’ll do the others and then I’ll show you what they look like at the end. And that’s the last one. And do ensure that you got plenty of body oil when you do your second round, of course, as some will have been absorbed by the bread rounds. So see you in about 10 minutes. And they’re done. And also just to show you, I have made a few smaller ones so that you can see the difference. They will all taste the same, but depending on who is eating and how big the mouth is. If you got children, you might want to do them smaller. And by the way, this recipe amongst other very similar recipes is going straight into the young ones, which is a playlist where food designed specifically for children is all together. So, it’s very hot, but I’ll taste one. I think uh somebody can already give us a judgment as whenever Julie films with me. She always test before. What is it like, Julie? Lovely. I’ve been testing the um the lovely little bits in the middle. Oh, that’s very hot. But it’s delicious. You can definitely taste the texture of the um the chard and also the pea the pizza the lentils. They are really delicious. The only thing I would say that they could benefit from is a little salt but you can always add difficult to take it away. So I’m very pleased with it. Are you Julie? Yeah, they’re lovely. Good. Well, thank you for watching and bonapito as always. Cha chow.