January 11, 2014 January 11, 2014/ Morgan
I have a confession : I used to LOVE eating fast food. Like every other day for a while. I don’t know why or HOW the heck I did that without being super sick all of the time but I see TONS of other people doing it. Anyway, I loved going out especially late at night to a certain place with funny commercials and eating a spicy sandwich combo. We don’t need to go into detail but I was thinking about vegan burgers and I wanted a spicy yummy sandwich that was BETTER than the old ones I used to love. The thought of the other sandwiches makes me cringe and my stomach starts to knot up like it’s ready to fight me if I consider it (I would NEVER EVER again. Ever.) When I ate THIS sandwich my stomach gave me a (telepathic) call and was like “Dude that was AWESOME! Let’s do that again sometime!” and I was like “Yeah, buddy!” – And now you know why I cook food all of the time. My stomach calls me.
Anyway – chickpea burgers! I’ve tried them a few times and they are temperamental little beasts. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans!) are awesome but they don’t smash up like black beans or kidney beans do for burgers. They are kind of delicate but well.. whatever. They taste good. So be GENTLE. Handle them like a soft newborn kitten and you should be fine. If they fall apart for some reason just pretend like you meant to do that and put it in a wrap! Woohooo for improvisation!
(makes 4)
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about 1.5 cups)
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice (I use the trader joes precooked frozen brown rice when I don’t have any leftover cooked brown rice.)
- 1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce (or another buffalo style hot sauce)
- shredded carrots for garnish
- some lettuce to make it look like a burger (haha!)
- Tofu Mayo or Ranch or Jalapeno Ranch or your favorite condiment for the buns!
- and some wholesome buns (or I wrap mine up in really big lettuce leaves or steamed collard greens)
Remove 1/2 cup of chickpeas and set aside. In a food processor blend the remaining chickpeas, oats and hot sauce together until only slightly chunky. You may be able to do this in a blender or with an immersion blender (this one has a cool food processor attachment!) as well. Get out a large bowl smash the 1/2 cup of reserved beans with a fork. Add in all of the remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat.
Form mixture into patties and place on the parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes and then flip gently with a spatula. Bake for another 15 minutes and let cool a bit. Then eat!
Store leftover ones in the refrigerator for a few days or you can freeze them. I love having frozen burgers ready for me on those nights where I can’t seem to get the energy up to cook!
- Use certified gluten free oats to make this gluten free (and make sure your hot sauce doesn’t have gluten!)