Chickpea Burgers Recipe (Vegan)

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Veganisimos proposes you this week to prepare totally vegan chickpea burgers. A fresh, light, extraordinarily delicious recipe! Ideal to eat with or without bread, accompanied by different side dishes such as french fries, salads, purees, vegetables, and much more!

Let’s talk about the recipe:

Making these burgers is simple because there are no complications in terms of preparation. The ingredients used are just a few and often used, easy to find in any market. In addition, you can modify the recipe according to preference or need without inconvenience.

Although it is a quick recipe to make, it does have a few considerations to keep in mind before you begin. Firstly, even though it is not necessary for the chickpeas to be completely crushed, it is necessary to have some kitchen element to crush them, such as a blender, processor or hand mixer.

If you don’t have any of the items listed above, another option would be to boil the chickpeas for an additional time. This way, they are soft enough to mash with a potato masher or fork. Still, both fresh and dried herbs should be chopped with a knife to mix evenly.

About the ingredients:

The main ingredient is chickpeas, any kind regardless of their variety, whether they are dried or canned soaked. In fact, both ways have their advantages. On the one hand, using canned chickpeas speeds up the preparation, saving the time of prior hydration and subsequent cooking of the chickpeas.

While when using dry chickpeas, all their properties are used intact. Plus, you get a useful amount of aquafaba. Briefly, chickpea hydration takes a minimum of 4 hours, ideally 8 and a maximum of 12 without losing its properties. After hydration, they are cooked in boiling water for about 1-2 hours.

The other ingredients that are added fulfill the function of adding flavor to the preparation. They can be replaced or deleted according to preference. Among them all kinds of fresh or dried herbs such as parsley, basil, coriander, oregano, etc. Also condiments, and vegetables such as onion, green onion, garlic, carrot, leek, fennel, etc.

Vegan ingredients with a binding effect:

To prevent the hamburgers from falling apart, ingredients are needed that help the structure and provide stability to the preparation. Being the most used with little significant changes in flavor: cassava starch, chickpea flour and cornstarch. It is convenient to use a mixture of them and in the right amount to obtain a light result.

Others could well be the classics such as breadcrumbs, bread batter or rice batter. But burgers are somewhat different in texture and taste. Something that I think is not worth sacrificing and more so when the preparation is mostly chickpeas, which is a type of ingredient that does not provide a large amount of liquid or moisture.

Likewise, there are other ingredients that help enrich and unite the preparation. In other words, they act as a union, just like the egg, but of vegetable origin. Among the options, for example, the flaxseed egg. However, similarly and to simplify, you can add flax flour directly or after hydration.

As well as the flaxseed egg, there are also options that have a binding effect, such as chia flour. Which you can buy or grind the seeds with a mortar or grinder. Equally, and even if it is not the same, you have the option of adding the chia seeds directly to the preparation or already hydrated with water. Chickpea flour has the same effect too.

About the burgers:

To mold the hamburgers, there are some different ways. Like a classic mold or hamburger press, pastry ring, round cookie cutter, etc. Also, compacting the mixture well with the hands. It is recommended to use plastic food dividers for an easy, convenient handling and storage.

The size of the medallions can vary according to the personal taste of each one. A burgers standard size has between 100 and 130 grams of preparation. In fact, with the quantities given in this recipe, you get 12 burgers of approximately 100 grams each. Keep in mind that after cooking, it reduces a little in size.

About Cooking:

Finally, these chickpea burgers are cooked at a medium low temperature, either in a pan, griddle, oven or microwave. It is important to cook one of the sides well and then turn with a spatula to complete the cooking. In no way are they pricked with a fork because they fall apart.