I know I know, before you even think about skipping this recipe just give it a chance. Americans love their beef, I get it (I love it too). However, sometimes it’s nice to give new things a try and you might be surprised how good it might turn out. I am not trying to change y’all into vegetarians, I promise, but there have been a lot of studies showing that lowering your red meat intake can have a multitude of benefits. Personally, I have been trying to eat less meat in general. I didn’t really want to put a title on it, just because I didn’t want to feel trapped and feel like I failed. Instead, I am just trying to eat less meat, trying to replace it with more plant based meals, and being more conscious of the ingredients I am utilizing. It was very hard in the beginning, but now it has been three weeks and I have been able to do 5 out of the 7 days with no meat. I am still eating seafood and fish, so its been more like being a pescatarian (I am eating eggs and diary products as well).
One of my favorite dishes that we have made are these chickpea burgers. At first I thought that the burgers would be really dry and without flavor, but after trying them they were the opposite of my expectations. These are very basic to make and it won’t require a huge basket of ingredients, except a few spices from your cabinet. It’s also very easy to prep and the cooking time is very short in case you are in a time crunch. One thing I would highly recommend is having an extra sauce like some hot sauce or some ranch as it just makes the burger ever better (we had sriracha and a green hot sauce).
Ingredients:
- 1 Head of cauliflower
- 1 Tbsp of butter
- 2 Tbsp of olive oil
- 2 Tbsp of cumin
- 1 Cup of bread crumbs
- 1 Can of chickpeas (also known as Garbanzo beans)
- 2 Tbsp of paprika
- 2 Tbsp of lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp of garlic powder
- 1/2 Tbsp of salt
- 1/2 Tbsp of pepper
- Preferred set of burger buns (we used sandwich thins)
Sauce:
- 1/2 Cup of mayo
- 2 Tbsp of buffalo sauce
Toppings:
- 1 Tomato
- 1 Head of Lettuce (we used kale)
- 1 Jar of pickles
- 1 Onion (we used purple onion)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut up cauliflower into small pieces (small enough to fit in food processor) and drizzle a little olive oil with salt.
- Put prepped cauliflower onto a baking sheet and place in your oven for 25 minutes.
- While your cauliflower cooks, place chickpeas in food processor with the cumin, paprika, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Once the cauliflower is cooked, add it to the food processor and puree until finely mashed
- Let your mixture cool down in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
- Take mixture out of the fridge, and then add bread crumbs and mix together. Once mixed, form mixture into patties that will fit your buns.
- Get a skillet and add some olive oil, and put on medium to high heat. Place patties on your skillet and cook each side for 2-3 minutes or until browned until each side.
- In your oven place your buns and lightly add butter to them to toast them up.
- Get a small container and add your mayo and buffalo sauce and mix together with a spoon.
- Cut up tomato and onion into slices, wash lettuce and cut to size, and then get your pickle jar
- Finally, add your toasted up bun on your plate, place a chickpea patty on your bun, add sauce to the top side of then bun and then add cut up toppings as you like and viola!
I really hope that you enjoyed these burgers as much as we did. Maybe now you’ll be more open minded to meatless dishes! For those of you that are already vegetarians or vegans I will be sharing a lot more yummy recipes to try out.
Next up Zucchini Enchiladas! Get ready!
The Local Provision 