Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Clean Eating #127: Chickpea & Spinach Veggie Burgers (the best texture yet!)

Chickpea & Spinach Veggie Burgers
Oops!  I forgot to take a final photo when they were done because I was STARVING... and they were so good that they all got eaten!   These actually got firmer with cooking, while most of the others just seemed to get kind of soggy when heated.
Ingredients:
2-3 Tbsp Extra Vigrin Olive Oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 ounces of fresh spinach
2 Cups of cooked chickpeas
4 egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus one Tbsp of chickpea flour (you can make this yourself, its really easy)

Blend up some dried chickpeas to make chickpea flour.  Just make sure you get them all so you don't end up nearly breaking your teeth on a hard dried bean.  Not that I did that, of course.  I'm always very diligent whilst cooking:)

Thankfully I had some chickpeas still in the freezer from when I made the Tuscan Bean Spread

DIRECTIONS:
Heat the EVOO in a large skillet
Add the cumin and fresh spinach, cook until all of the spinach is wilted

In a blender/food processor mix together:
1 1/2 cup of cooked chick peas
egg whites
lemon juice
Pulse until somewhat chunky (mine was completely smooth because I only have a blender, but it still worked)

Add the cooked spinach, the rest of the cooked beans and chickpea flour
Add a little extra flour if needed, but don't make them too dry.  That flour is really potent!

You can kind of mash/chop up the remaining beans so that it add more "rough" texture to your veggie burger.

The puree stuff looked like paste.  It wasn't very appetizing at ALL, but the whole burger turned out to be my favorite thus far.

As always, I lightly coated the burger in ground flaxseed.  I like the extra crunch and the health benefits of flaxseed.

What I'll Do Differently Next Time:  Take pictures of the finished product and at least double the recipe.  These were really a great texture, but not big on flavor, so I'll probably mess with adding some different seasoning or maybe some peppers?  

I love LOVE the texture, but what are your suggestions for adding more FLAVOR?


Recipe adapted from this AMAZING book that everyone who likes veggie burgers needs to own!