One Of The Best Vegetarian Burger Recipes. Spicy Chickpea Burgers
This is really one of my favourite vegetarian burger recipes.
The harissa paste adds great flavour here as well as a spicy kick. Harissa, if you are not familiar with it, is a North African chilli paste made from chillis, olive oil, caraway, coriander and cumin seeds. It has a slightly smoky, fiery flavour which I think makes these burgers really special but you can substitute an alternative chilli paste if you need to. This recipe will give you about 8 to 10 burgers.
Ingredients:
400g (2 cups) of dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or 4 400g/14oz tins
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of harissa paste
Juice of a lemon
1 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
4 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander/cilantro (this is optional)
Gram flour (chickpea/garbanzo flour) or wheat flour to coat.
Sunflower oil for frying
Method:
1. If you are using dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) for this vegetarian burger recipes, soak them in plenty of water overnight. Drain the beans, then boil in fresh water for about 40 minutes or until soft. For more information on cooking dried beans, see my detailed instructions on how to cook beans.
2. Put the cooked chickpeas in a food processor with the onion, garlic, cumin seeds, harissa paste, lemon juice and salt.
3. Whizz the mixture for a couple of minutes until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl or dish.
4. Lightly beat the egg with a fork and add to the bowl with the chopped coriander (cilantro). Mix very well. If the mixture seems wet, you can add some breadcrumbs or crumbled weetabix.
5. Now shape the mixture into burgers. The best way to do this is to take a fistful of the mix and roll it into a ball between your palms. Place the ball on a board scattered very liberally with gram flour. (You can also use wheat flour to coat but gram flour gives a lovely golden colour to the burgers and has a pleasant savoury flavour.) Roll around to coat and then flatten slightly to make a burger shape.
6. To cook, heat a thin layer of sunflower oil in a pan or skillet and fry the burgers for a few minutes on each side. I like to transfer them to a hot oven for a few minutes to give them a nice even crisp coating but you can skip this step if you like.
7. If you are cooking the burgers on the barbeque, brush with oil first and barbeque as normal.
To Serve:
I love these vegetarian burgers with a yoghurt sauce like raita, salad and a vegetable side dish like potato roasties.
Like all my vegetarian burger recipes, these also freeze very well. You can freeze them before you cook them or after frying. I like to freeze after frying. That way, you can just defrost and reheat in a hot oven for about 10 minutes.
I hope you enjoyed these spicy chickpea burgers. For more vegetarian burger recipes, take a look at my vegetarian barbeque page.
