Winter Burgers

makes 18 burgers, can be frozen

Soak 750gm dried chickpeas in cold water overnight, or 8 hours. Allow enough room to almost double in size. Strain and rinse chickpeas. Remove any loose skins. Cover chickpeas with fresh, clean water and bring to a boil, reduce to a gentle simmer for about 2 hours or until chickpeas are tender. Skim surface regularly. Strain and cool.

When chickpeas are cool remove loose skins, lightly process the chickpeas to break them up retaining some texture and uneven sizes. Use the pulse button on the food processor.

Trim the crust from ½ medium sized loaf of French white bread. Process to fine breadcrumbs. In a large bowl use your hands to stir breadcrumbs through the chickpeas until evenly distributed. Using your hands avoids breaking up the chickpeas any further and compressing the breadcrumbs.

Add the following to the chickpea mixture and stir through until evenly distributed: 2 tbsp ground fennel, 1 ¼ tbsp cumin, 1 ¼ tbsp smoked hot paprika, 1 rounded tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper.

Next add ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, use a dark, rich flavoured oil. You may need to add more oil than this. Test the mixture by squeezing in the palm of your hands, it is ready when it holds together but is still a little fragile.

Now form the burgers. Take a handful of chickpea mixture and, using both your hands, mould into a palm sized patty about 2cm thick.

To cook the burgers heat a dry frying pan or griddle to medium hot. Lay the burgers in the pan and brush the tops with olive oil. After about 3 minutes carefully turn the burgers using 2 spatulas (the burgers are fragile) brush with olive oil. Cook for another 3 minutes or until burgers are starting to brown.

Serve in focaccia with a spicy dressing. Alternatively, serve on rice and lentils with a spicy sauce and green salad.

Take the basic composition of these burgers and play with the seasonings to create your own burger.

thank you!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by at the Blim Market, and a special thank you for all the compliments and kind feedback.

I’m very pleased you enjoyed it!

Blim Market, Sunday November 29, 2009

Cambrian Hall, 17th & Main, 11am - 5pm

This coming Sunday is a great opportunity to do a bit of Christmas shopping and find some truly original gifts AND enjoy some lovely hot comfort food.

Here’s the menu, full of cozy cold weather flavours:

winter burger: chickpea patty with smoked paprika, fennel and cumin in focaccia with a rich spicy tomato compote

beet and sage tarts, with an onion and potato crust

sweet spicy almonds and pecans

I'm looking forward to staving off your hunger!

Fusilli with Chickpeas, Bacon and Sage

Serves 2 with leftovers for lunch
Always use the best ingredients you can find to suit your budget.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil.

Heat up one tablespoon of olive oil and sauté half a chopped onion with 6 slices of smoked bacon cut into ½ inch pieces. Stir in half a carrot, julienned. Stir in one can of organic chickpeas, rinsed.

When water is at a rolling boil add 4 cups of whole wheat fusilli, return to boil and simmer until al dente.

Add two canned tomatoes, chopped plus ½ cup of juice to the chickpea mixture. Just before pasta is ready stir in 2 tablespoons of chopped sage, a good twist of black pepper and a generous pinch of sea salt. Stir through ½ cup of heavy cream.

Drain pasta and add to chickpeas, stir to coat.

Serve with grated padano and extra black pepper.