chickpea patties

Chickpeas are a staple of a vegetarian diet…they taste good & are packed with protein, even our little cat eats them.  I always have cans of organic chickpeas and coconut oil on my shelf, always.  I also always have greek yogurt, sour cream and fresh vegetables in my fridge.  I wanted to make something that reminded me of falafel but wanted it to be lighter and with vegetables.   I made these along with some fresh haricot vert topped with a parmesan pecan sauce (I’ll post the recipe for that later, I promise).

Before I get started…I want to show you the beautiful night blooming jasmine that surrounds our entire yard.  In the evening the buds open up and fill the air with the most amazing scent!  We also have a huge tree by our front door and the sweet scent wafts into our house with the evening mountain air.  ahhh…  Ok, back to the patties…

  

  

You will need to grind the chickpeas with the shallot, olive oil and a bit of sea salt before adding it to the shredded veggies.  Some cooked swiss chard would be great in here too!  I didn’t have any to add this time.

  

while the patties are crisping up in the pan, make your yogurt sauce.

chickpea patties

makes 10 small patties

ingredients:

patties

1 can organic chickpeas, drained & rinsed

1/2 shallot, peeled and cut into large dice

1T olive oil

1/2t sea salt

1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped fine

1 zucchini, shredded

2 medium carrots, peeled & shredded

1/2c cooked rice (I use jasmine)

1/4c breadcrumbs (I use Panko)

2t curry powder

1/4c plain greek yogurt

1t sea salt

1/4t cayenne pepper

coconut oil for frying

yogurt sauce

1c plain greek yogurt 

2T sour cream

1 1/2t ground organic cumin

1t ground organic coriander

1/2t sweet paprika

1t sea salt

1/8t cayenne pepper

juice of 1/2 lemon or about 1T

how to:

Pulse the first 4 patty ingredients in a food processor just until it’s coarse.  Scrape down the sides to make sure the chickpeas combine with the shallot.  Then into a large bowl, combine the ground chickpea mixture with the rest of the patty ingredients.  Taste for salt.

Heat a skillet on medium heat with about 1 T of the coconut oil, .  The patties will soak up the oil fast so you might need to add more as they are cooking.  Don’t add too much though.

Form the chickpea-veggie mixture into golfball size balls and slightly flatten to form a patty.  Don’t press them too hard.  gently place them into the hot pan.  They will start to brown around the edges in about 1-2 minutes.  Take a peek to see if they are golden and crispy on the bottom.  When they are ready, flip them over carefully and  let them brown on the other side.  Remove them onto a plate.

As the patties are cooking, make your yogurt sauce.  Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.  Adjust the seasoning if you need to and taste for salt.

Serve the hot patties with the cool yogurt sauce.  They are great left over–eat them are room temperature or heat them up in a pan.  Gary and I can eat all 10 patties…then I finish up the left over yogurt sauce…mmm!

enjoy!