Chickpea with Red Pepper Burgers

Number of servings: 4
Estimated Prep Time: 15 minutes
Estimated Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 Onion (small)

1 Garlic (minced)

1 tin Chickpeas

1 Red Pepper (chopped)

1/2 pound Carrots (grated)

2/3 cup Dried Bread Crumbs

2 tablespoons Peanut Butter

1 tablespoon Curry Powder

2 tablespoons Cilantro (fresh, chopped)

Comments

You can make these a day ahead. They need to be chilled anyway so they hold together well.

You can also freeze these with pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap between them. If so, cook from frozen rather than thawing first.

Serve with regular hamburger buns; also lovely inside pita bread, perhaps with some mayonnaise and lettuce.

Breadcrumbs: if you have whole wheat bread crumbs, use those for the extra taste; if not, white crumbs are fine.

Chickpeas: Tin size of 400g / 13 oz. Don't worry if your tin of chickpeas is an ounce or two bigger, use it anyway.

Fresh Cilantro: Don't rush out and buy if you don't have any. Try celery if you keep it frozen in fridge (see tips under celery), or anything else you might enjoy the flavour of, such as dried parsley, or omit entirely.

Curry Powder: You can instead use 2 tbsp of curry paste if you keep paste to hand, or see ingredient entry for Curry Powder (highlight Curry Powder and click on it) for substitutes.

Makes about 8 burgers.

Directions

1. Either:
With Food Processor: Whiz onion, garlic, chickpeas and red pepper until smooth.

Or by hand: mash chickpeas somehow -- with a potato masher, through a food mill, etc -- and mix in onion, garlics and red pepper.

2. Place in a bowl, add carrot, bread crumbs, peanut butter, curry and coriander. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

3. Mould into patty shapes, big enough to be burger size, and dust with a little flour. Chill again for at least an hour. If chilling longer or overnight, cover.

4. Either barbeque or fry in a frying pan. Cook until they smell done and have browned on both sides. Turn once during cooking.