Lentil lovin’: burgers offer locally sourced vegetarian option
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RONAN – In a county where cows out number people 2 to 1, beef burgers are a staple part of the economy and a frequent dinner table favorite, but a Ronan-based company is trying to use locally sourced plant products to make a new kind of delicious, vegetarian burger alternative that also benefits the Montana ag scene.
Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, a part of Lake County Community Development Corporation, has worked for the past two years to develop the Montana Lentil Burger for commercial distribution and will be having a free public lentil burger cookout from noon until 1 p.m. on May 15 at the center.
“It’s comparable to a black bean burger,” Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center Food and Ag Coordinator Shay Farmer said. “It’s pretty good. It has local lentils and oats. It’s pretty filling. People always think vegetarian things aren’t as filling but it’s got a lot of protein and a lot of fiber in it.”
The burger was developed with a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. The center partnered with Oregon State University and the developer of the world’s most popular veggie burger, the Boca Burger, to find a design that fit.
It has been a mission of the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center to create value-added, Montana-made products in recent years. At the same time growing lentils is becoming more and more popular near Great Falls. Montana currently leads the nation in lentil production.
“The cool thing about lentils and why they are starting to grow them over that way a little more is that they provide nitrogen and return nutrients to the soil as they are growing,” Farmer said. “So it is really great to rotate with wheat, which is huge over there.”
So far, the burger has been mostly marketed to schools and universities, but it is found in some restaurants between Kalispell and Missoula too. The Good Food Store in Missoula carries the burger for the individual consumer.
Kalispell Schools Food Service Director Jenny Montague said her district has served the lentil burger since Fall 2012 as an alternative option to beef burgers.
“Not all students appreciate the lentil burger — they didn’t go over well when we served them as the main option — but they are a great option for students who do not choose to eat our beef burgers,” Montague said. “Our beef burgers are also popular because we use Montana beef. The lentil-taco crumble is more popular; this is product we purchase from MMFEC that is a combination of beef-lentils and seasoned.”
Montague said the burgers are a good for students and good for the environment.
“We try to incorporate lentils whenever possible into menu items. Lentils are healthy Montana product that is also good for our soil,” Montague said.
The Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center would like to market more locally-sourced, value-added food products in the future, according to Farmer.
She encouraged everyone to come out and try the burger at Friday’s cookout to see what it’s like. There is a gluten-free version of the creation available.
