CHICKPEA BURGERS !

I often eat these, as they’re super versatile and are easy to throw into almost anything as well as being a great source of protein (9 grams per 100 grams). Plus, they’re a great source of fibre, they’re low in saturated fat and low in Cholesterol and Sodium.

How to?

So this is the part where you actually could use a blender to mix all these ingredients together – however you don’t want this to all become a mushy paste, as you want the burgers to be ‘sticky’ enough to stick together, but you still want a certain ‘bite’ to your mix. So make sure your blender isn’t TOO efficient, otherwise use it in intermittent bursts of blending!

If you don’t have a blender, this manual equivalent works well, and is my preferred option as it really gets you involved in the production process!

1. Rinse off the chickpeas from the water they’ve been soaked in.
2. With your hands, mush up the chickpeas until they’re no longer round (again, you don’t want a smooth paste, but rather a textured semi-solid).
3. Press some of the finely-chopped garlic into the mix.
4. Finely chop the onion, sundried tomatoes and red pepper and mix this into the chickpeas
5. Add in the spices before the eggs as this will allow you to taste the mix before the eggs go in.
6. Without whipping the eggs but Instead beating them lightly as if you were making scrambled eggs, pour the egg mixture into the bowl with all the other ingredients in it, and stir lightly for some minutes.
7. If the mixture is still too loose then add either breadcrumbs, chia seeds or sesame seeds to fill out and ‘dry out’ the mixture further
8. With the mixture, fashion small balls, big enough to fit in your palm, and place them on a plate before squishing them down until such time as you’ve created that classic burger aesthetic.
9. Fill a flat plate with sesame seeds and coat each burger in the seeds on both sides.
10. Repeat this process until there are no burgers left and then put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to ‘set’.
11. Then use some olive oil In a pan and sauté until golden.

Same applies here avoid using a blender as you don’t want to create a mushy paste but want a bit of ‘bite’.

If you don’t have a blender, or prefer to go in ‘manual mode’, start off by:

1. Rinse off the chickpeas from the water in which they’ve been soaked.
2. Roughly cut up your broccoli and steam it until soft.
3. After it’s been steamed and has cooled off, very finely chop the broccoli and put in the bowl.
4. With your hands, mush up the chickpeas until they’re no longer round (again, you don’t want a smooth paste, but rather a textured semi-solid).
5. Press some of the finely-chopped garlic into the mix.
6. Finely chop the onion, sundried tomatoes and red pepper and mix this into the chickpeas
7. Add in the spices before the eggs as this will allow you to taste the mix before the eggs go in.
8. Without whipping the eggs but Instead beating them lightly as if you were making scrambled eggs, pour the egg mixture into the bowl with all the other ingredients in it, and stir lightly for some minutes.
9. If the mixture is still too loose then add either breadcrumbs, chia seeds or sesame seeds to fill out and ‘dry out’ the mixture further
10. With the mixture, fashion small balls, big enough to fit in your palm, and place them on a plate before squishing them down until such time as you’ve created that classic burger aesthetic.
11. Fill a flat plate with sesame seeds and coat each burger in the seeds on both sides.
12. Repeat this process until there are no burgers left and then put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to ‘set’.
13. Then use some olive oil In a pan and sauté until golden.