Chickpea Burgers with Roasted Vegetables

These two recipes come from the cookbook, Low-Glycemic Meals in Minutes: Fast track your family to healthy eating and active living by Laura Kalina and Cheryl Christian. Thank you to Connie for introducing me to this great recipe book!

I tried these two recipes tonight for the first time and thought I should post them right away. I will definitely be making these again.

Ingredients for Roasted Vegetables:

5 large carrots, sliced into fries

3 sweet potoates, sliced into fries

2 red bell peppers, quartered (I put mine into strips)

1 large sweet onion, quartered

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper

2 Tb. olive oil

Method for Roasted Vegetables:

1. Position racks in top and bottom thirds of oven. Preheat to 450 degrees F.

2. Place two large rimmed baking sheets in oven while preheating (heating baking sheets before adding vegetables seals in the flavour and helps vegetables develop a golden colour).

3. Place all ingredients in large bowl and toss until vegetables are evenly coated with oil.

4. Remove baking sheets from oven and tumble vegetables onto sheets and spread out.

5. Roast 25-35 minutes, switching trays half way though roasting.

Ingredients for Chickpea Burgers:

(makes 6 servings)

1 Tb. olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 cup whole grain bread crumbs, loosely packed

1 egg

1/3 cup flaxseed, ground

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 Tb. dried parsley

pinch cayenne pepper

1 - 2 Tb. whole wheat flour (optional)

Method for Chickpea Burgers:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add onion and garlic and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until golden.

2. In a food processor, puree chickpeas until they resemble bread crumbs. Add bread crumbs, egg, flaxseed, cumin, salt, parsley, and pepper. Process for a few seconds.

3. Add onion and garlic mixture to ingredients in food processor. Process until just combined. Add wholewheat flour if mixture is too wet to form patties.

4. Form into patties.

5. Spray a non-stick frying pan with cooking spray and fry patties over medium heat until browned, approximately 4 minutes per side.

one cup wholewheat bread crumbs

1/4 cup cup flaxseed, ground

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 Tb. dried parsley

Process until just combined. At this point, I did find the mixture too wet and added 2 Tb. quinoa flour, which helped a lot

Form into patties (6)

Getting up close and personal with a chickpea burger

As I made them, I put them on a plate covered with sarah wrap, which made it easier to get off when frying them.

Fry these 4 minutes each side

I added some low fat marble cheddar cheese

And this is what those roasted vegetables look like after switching pans and baking for 25-35 minutes

And there you have it: a chickpea burger and roasted vegetables

I served the burger on a whole wheat bun with mayonnaise and spinach

Total calories per burger: 275 and it is a burger you can feel good about eating.

I added some chipotle mayo to my plate for dipping the sweet potato

Cook's Notes:

I'm not sure if my taste buds were influenced too much by the chipotle mayo, but I would have liked the burger to have more flavour. The fact that it was mild for my palate may have been a good thing as my 12 old liked the burger. I avoided the cayenne as I did not want it to be too spicy, but next time I might try:

-adding the cayenne;

-adding sauteed mushrooms to the burger; or

-serving the burger with tzatziki sauce.