Easy Higher Protein Vegan Chickpea Burgers

A quick and simple vegan burger patty recipe which is made with chickpeas

Decided to give Meatless Mondays a try but feeling lost for ideas? Why not give these burgers a try? (Alternatively, you could try my meat-free spaghetti bolognese recipe).

Come on, who doesn’t love a good burger?

Convenient, easy to eat, satisfying, and is pretty balanced as far as macronutrients go – what’s not to love?

I wanted to create a quick and easy vegan burger patty recipe that could be an easy substitute for someone looking for a vegan meal to create but had no idea where to start.

I wanted to keep it relatively high in protein, and firm enough to hold up nicely on a bun, with some nice savoury flavours, but keep it easy, with minimal strange or little-known ingredients.

Chickpeas are cheap, filling, nutritious and versatile, as well as accessible – you will find them tinned in most large food retailers. I buy my chickpeas dry most of the time, and cook them in my pressure cooker – no soaking required, and all it takes is 20-25 minutes and you have perfectly cooked chickpeas. They are way cheaper to buy this way, and they taste better too. You can then freeze any leftovers for use in other meals/dishes.

Frozen garden peas are easily available, and fairly cheap, so that is what I used in this recipe. Their addition also ups the protein content, as well as creating an interesting texture.

After experimenting with various flours, I found that potato starch held these burger patties together the best. I buy mine from Dischem usually, but the Health Connection Wholefoods brand sell this potato flour, which is in fact, potato starch. Any well-stocked pharmacy or health food store should stock it, and it is not expensive. Using potato starch also makes these burger patties gluten free. Note that potato starch is not the same as potato flour, and I have not tried to make these with potato flour yet (this is according to this article, as well as others I found on the subject, although, as mentioned above, Health Connection label their potato starch as potato flour).

If you do not have potato starch, these can be made with an equal amount of all-purpose cake flour, and it turns out quite well too.

These were delicious straight from the fridge also, without the bun, so can be served with potato fries or veggies to make a light meal, which would keep it gluten free if you don’t have access to gluten free burger buns.

Easy Higher Protein Vegan Chickpea Burgers

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Recipe by Catherine Stevenson Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main mealCuisine: veganDifficulty: Easy

Servingsservings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Tasty vegan chickpea burger patties that are simple to make

Ingredients

• 1 onion

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• 250g cooked chickpeas

• 1/2 cup cooked green peas

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 2 Tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

• 1-2 Tbsp potato starch

• Olive oil, for frying

Directions

• Peel and dice the onion finely and grate the garlic.
• Heat a small frying pan over medium heat and add the chopped onion and garlic.
  I use water to fry, but you may prefer to use a dash of olive oil.
• While the onion and garlic are frying, drain the chickpeas well and place in a large bowl.
• Mash the chickpeas using a fork or potato masher – I find this method gives the best texture as it still leaves some larger chunks.
• Add the cooked onion and garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice and coriander to the chickpea mash.
• Lastly, add the potato starch and whole green peas.
  If you used frozen green peas, make sure to cook them according to the instructions on the bag, I usually just use the microwave as its easier.
• The mixture should be wet enough to clump and hold a ball shape in your palm, but not too dry that it crumbles too easily.
  If it is too dry, add a dash more lemon juice, or if it is too moist, add a dash more potato starch.
• Heat a large frying pan and brush on a few teaspoons of olive oil.
  These can be made successfully in an airfryer, although I found the pan-fried version to be more appealing.
• Fry each patty in a medium hot pan for around 5 minutes per side, until they are golden brown.
• I suggest serving on hamburger buns with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, B-Well vegan mayonnaise and tomato or barbeque sauce.