Happy Monday! With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I wanted to share a super easy, quick, and healthy meat-free dish. It takes less than 20 minutes to put together, and is the perfect way to start off the rather hectic and calorie-laden days ahead.
In our house, we pretty much always have cooked quinoa in the fridge. It’s chewy, nutty, and nutritious, and picks up any flavors you add to it. I have tried a few recipes in the past that had things like sweet potato or lentils, but I found quinoa to be a really nice addition to the chick peas.
For the chick peas, I used canned to keep this a quick meal, but if you have dried chick peas in the pantry and some extra time, I’ve included the instructions for that option as well.
To start, simply put the chickpeas, quinoa, breadcrumbs, onion, pepper, garlic, egg, salt, pepper, cumin and red pepper flakes in the food processor.
Pulse until the texture is similar to a thick oatmeal cookie dough. This took a little while for me, as I had to keep scraping the sides to get everything incorporated, about 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, season the 1/2 cup of flour with salt, pepper, and cumin, about a 1/8 teaspoon of each.
Now you can start forming the burger patties. Spray a sheet pan with some non-stick spray or line the pan with foil. With the flour mixture next to you (and some on your hands) take about 1/4 of the mixture and begin shaping it into a patty. You’ll want to handle the patties very gently, and keep them about 3/4-1 inch thick, or they’ll break up during cooking. As you shape each burger patty, coat it with a fair amount of flour and place it in the prepared sheet pan. Continue until you’ve made all 4 patties. (I’m bad at eye-balling and ended up with a small patty leftover, but it’s all good!)
Place the burgers in the fridge to rest for about 20 minutes (optional – if you’re in a hurry, you can cook them right away). If you aren’t going to make them all, you can put the leftovers on a covered dish in the fridge for a couple of days, or freezer for a couple weeks until you are ready to make them.
In the meantime, add the olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat. I used about 1/2 tablespoon per patty, but they would do fine with as little as half that amount, if you want to use less.
Cook for about 5 minutes on the first side, until they are a deep brown, and then flip. The second side only needs about 3 minutes to finish cooking the burgers through. If you are making all 4 and have a big skillet, you can make them all at once. However, if you can only fit 2 in the pan, you can keep the cooked burgers in a warm oven while you make the second batch.
While the burgers cook, prepare your toppings. I chose some crisp iceberg lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, and sriacha mayo (1/4 cup light mayo with 2 teaspoons sriracha, mixed – about 1 tbsp per burger). Sliced avocado would be delicious here, along with other standard burger toppings like tomato and onion.
Now it’s time to assemble the burgers, however you’d like. I always like to put the lettuce on the bottom, to prevent the bun from getting soggy, and sprouts and mayo top it off perfectly!
I’d love to know – what are your favorite meatless meals?
Prep: 10 minutes, Cook: about 8 minutes, Total: < 20 minutes
Makes 4 huge burgers (or 10 hearty sliders)
- 15.5 oz can chickpeas (or 1 cup dried chickpeas – soak for 8 hours in water with 1 teaspoon baking soda, then drain, and rinse. Place soaked beans in pot, cover with water, bring to boil, then reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 2 hours. Rinse.)
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 1/2 bell pepper, diced
- 1 clove garlic, diced
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus a pinch for flour dredge
- cracked black pepper, plus a pinch for flour dredge
- 1 teaspoon cumin, plus a pinch for flour dredge
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 potato rolls
- toppings: iceberg lettuce, sriracha mayo, alfalfa sprouts
Put the chickpeas, quinoa, breadcrumbs, onion, pepper, garlic, egg, salt, pepper, cumin and red pepper flakes in the food processor and pulse for about 5 minutes, until well incorporated.
In a separate bowl, season the 1/2 cup of flour with salt, pepper, and cumin, about a 1/8 teaspoon of each.
Spray a sheet pan with some non-stick spray or line the pan with foil.
Take about 1/4 of the mixture and shape it into a 3/4-1 inch patty. Coat with a fair amount of flour and place in the prepared sheet pan. Continue until you’ve made all 4 patties.
Place the burgers in the fridge to rest for about 20 minutes (optional, can cook right away if you need to).
Add the olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and cook for about 5 minutes on the first side, until they are a deep brown, and then flip. Cook the second side for about 3 minutes to finish cooking the burgers through.
While the burgers cook, prepare your toppings.
Once cooking is finished, assemble the burgers.
Crunchy Salty Sweet 