Deb will be making a variant of the classic hamburger, great if you have vegetarian friends coming over: the chickpea burger. Find this and many more recipes on the Giallozafferano App in English http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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Tonight my vegetarian friend Hanna is coming over for dinner, so I decided to make a variant of the classic hamburger, the chickpea burger. It takes less than 30 minutes to make; I’m using canned chickpeas, but you can also use dried chickpeas, as long as you soak them for at least 10-12 hours.
So, put the chickpeas in a food processor… then cut the shallot. This recipe is great not only for vegetarians, but also to get your kids to eat legumes, since they’re usually a little bit reluctant. Roughly cut the garlic, too… then add: 2 eggs… 2 teaspoons of mustard… and some grated ginger. Now take the sandwich bread… a couple of slices, and break it with your hands, as it will be processed. For this recipe you can use chickpeas, as well as any other legume. Add salt and pepper… and process for a few seconds… it’s enough. Now take a bowl… and half of the mixture, 3 spoonfuls; keep aside this coarse, grainy mixture, since we’ll need it to make the patties firmer. Process the remaining mixture until even consistency… perfect. As you can see, now it’s ready… so we can blend the 2 mixtures together. In this case, I’m using canned chickpeas, so I’ll add a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs, because canned chickpeas are a bit watery and the addition of breadcrumbs will absorb the moisture. Stir well, to blend the breadcrumbs into the mixture… taste to see if it’s salty enough… yes it is! Now… if you want the traditional stripes on the patty, use a grill pan like this, otherwise you can use any other pan; put it on the heat… until very hot, meanwhile we’ll shape the patties. Here we are. This recipe makes about 8 patties, or 6, it depends on how thick you want it to be. Take a spoonful of dough and make them as evenly shaped as possible… that’s it. Now put it on the pan and go on. Look at the stripes!
Well, we can assemble our burger, first of all cut the buns in half. Be careful, don’t be taken in by the fact that it’s a vegetarian recipe, because it’s not light at all, since legumes and chickpeas in particular are very high in calories. Spread the mayonnaise, of course you can use any sauce or dressing you like, I prefer it to be simple, so I’ll add the mayonnaise, the salad, the patty and the tomato… and voilà. Just in time… buon appetito!
For 8 burgers:
• 2 ½ cups (500 g) of chickpeas
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tsp of fresh grated ginger
• 2 medium eggs
• 2 tsp of mustard
• 2 bread slices
• salt to taste For serving:
• 8 medium burger buns
• salad to taste
• tomatoes
• mayonnaise