Garbanzo Burgers

A week ago, I was lucky enough to win a copy of the cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, by Heidi Swanson from Barbara at Moveable Feasts. Thank you, Barbara! You may know Heidi Swanson from her culinary website 101 Cookbooks or Mighty Foods. She's a wonderful photography and graphic designer and great cook.

Super Natural Cooking is filled with recipes on how to add more healthy, natural ingredients to our diet. When I first leafed through the book, I was surprised to see so many recipes that sounded not only healthy but flavorful as well, including recipes for desserts. This recipe for Garbanzo Burgers was the first to grab my attention with its ingredients and creativity. 

Rather than making a pattie using beans to use as the 'burger', the pattie becomes the 'bun'! What a great idea.

A delicious mixture of garbanzo beans, egg, sprouts,, onion, parsley, and whole wheat bread crumbs form the patty which then becomes the bun for more healthy filling ingredients. The original recipe calls for chopped cilantro, which I'm not a huge fan of, so I substituted parsley.  I also decided to add a healthy splash of Tabasco for 'kick'. 

I am growing my own arugula sprouts right now and it's such a fun and easy way to add sprouts to salads or sandwiches like this.

The mixture is then formed into patties and fried in olive oil until golden on both sides.  The patties are carefully sliced in half and then your imagination is the limit for the filling.  I chose avocado, tomato, chives, more arugula sprouts, and sliced radishes.

I think these would be a wonderful served with a salad or roasted vegetables also.

It was such a flavorful and delicious 'burger' and a wonderful lunch or meatless meal.

I'm looking forward to trying more recipes from Super Natural Cooking after this very tasty, first experience.

Garbanzo Burgers
Adapted from Super Natural Cooking
Printable Recipe

Note - This recipe is halved from the original and yielded 5 medium Garbanzo Burgers

For the garbanzo burgers:

1 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (about 1-1/3 cups)
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Several dashes of Tabasco
1/2 cup sprouts, such as arugula, alfalfa, broccoli,
1/2 cup toasted whole-grain bread crumbs
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil for frying

Filling ideas:

Additional sprouts
Avocado slices
Tomato slices
Chives or sliced onion
Radish slices
Another dash or two of Tabasco or your favorite salsa.

Combine the drained garbanzo beans, eggs, and salt in a food processor and puree until mixture is the consistency of thick, chunky hummus. Pour into a mixing bowl and add the parsley, onion, lemon zest and Tabasco. Add the bread crumbs and stir until blended. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes while the pan is heating so the crumbs absorb some of the moisture. You should be able to easily form the mixture into patties after this time.

Preheat a large frying pan (I used a large cast iron skillet) with the olive oil over medium low heat. Add as many patties as you can without crowding. Cover the pan and cook them for 5-10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. If necessary, turn up the heat slightly if they are not browning. Flip the patties over and cook for another 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the patties from the skillet and cool on a wire rack and cook any remaining patties.

Carefully cut each patty in half with a long, serrated knife. Add your favorite fillings.

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