Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Meatless Dinner? Try Chickpea Burgers!



When I started the Yipson Foods school lunch program my goal was to offer one vegetarian meal and one meal with meat per day. I found it to be quite a challenge coming up with thirty different vegetarian meals. When I started in food service most restaurants I worked for offered "vegetarian upon request". Usually, the vegetarian was some sort of  pasta dish like Primavera. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn about vegetarian meals. I hired a Chef de Cuisine who was a vegetarian and began the process of learning about vegetarian meals. The fun part of learning in food service is getting to try new foods! Along with the children in some of our test groups I enjoyed trying all sorts of vegetarian foods. The Chic Pea Burgers by far are one of my favorites. Also, if you do not want it on a bun it tastes great on a salad or wrapped in lettuce. Enjoy!

Chick Pea Burgers
Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients
1/2 pound potato
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can (15.5 oz) chick peas, drained, rinsed with 1/4 cup of the can set aside
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 egg whites, lightly beaten


Preparation
  1. In a small sauce pan boil potato until the potato is soft and easily pierced with a fork. Cool potato, remove skin and chop potato in small pieces. Place chopped potato in a large bowl. 
  2. Add olive oil, minced garlic and can of chic peas not including the 1/4 cup that was set aside. Mash with a potato masher until well combined.
  3. Stir in the parsley, salt, pepper, lemon, paprika, eggs and 1/4 cup of the chickpeas to the potato mixture.
  4. Shape the mixture into four patties.
  5. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet pan over medium heat.
  6. Cook approx. 5 minutes on each side. Be careful when flipping. Should be golden in color and reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.




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