Recipes
Spiced Carrot, Chickpea & Cheddar Veggie Burgers
Veggie treats with a surprise inside… serve these tasty melt-in-the-middle burgers with an Indian-style salsa to really make the flavours...
Ingredients
- 400g can chickpeas, rinsed and dried
- 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
- 200g carrots, finely grated
- 100g mature Cheddar cheese, grated, plus 25g for the filling
- 3tbsp peanut butter powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp black onion seeds (Nigella seeds)
- 1 portion salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2-3 tbsp instant polenta, semolina or ground rice, for dusting
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/4 cucumber, finely chopped
- 1 very small red onion, finely chopped
- 1 green chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Top tip!
Serve in toasted burger buns, or for a lighter option wrap and serve in crisp lettuce leaves or Chinese leaves. You could also use a filling of soft cheese flavoured with garlic and herbs instead of Cheddar.
Method
- Put the chickpeas and red onion into a food processor. Blitz for a few seconds to give a partially puréed mixture – it needs some texture, so avoid over-processing – then tip into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the carrots, 100g Cheddar, the peanut butter powder, ground coriander and black onion seeds. Mix thoroughly, seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Use the burger press to make four burgers, using the stuffed burger plates and the remaining grated Cheddar for the filling. Before making each burger, sprinkle a little instant polenta, semolina or ground rice into the top and bottom plates – this aids release, and gives a nice crunchy texture.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the burgers over a low heat for 4-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
- To make the kachumber salad, mix together the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, chilli and coriander, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Serve with the burgers.