Vegan Middle Eastern Chickpea Broccoli Burgers

(Wow that's a mouth full! Literally!)

Adapted from The Tolerant Vegan. 

This was the first full meal that I made as a vegan. And, I’m sad to say that it took me two hours to make the burgers, cook them, and also to make the sides for the rest of the meal. So, if you are in college, making your own veggie burgers is not the most time efficient task. Nevertheless, it is impressive and delicious. However, if you have a long weekend or are at home for Christmas break, you can make dozens of vegan burgers ahead of time, freeze them, and then use them later. By experience, I know that veggie burgers freeze and keep well!

So, here is the recipe.

Burger ingredients:

A FOOD PROCESSOR!

1/3 cup dry couscous

1 cup water

A bunch of broccoli florets or 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped scallions (aka green onions)

1/2 cup chopped yellow onion

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 15 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon sesame tahini

1/2 cup breadcrumbs. (Or, 2 slices of toast)

Tahini dressing ingredients:

1/3 cup sesame tahini

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2.  In a small pot, bring the water and couscous to a boil. Remove from heat immediately and allow the couscous to sit in the pot for 10 minutes, soaking up the water.
3. First clean and wash the broccoli. To steam the broccoli in the microwave, cut the florets (trunk) of the broccoli off so that you have the bite-sized end pieces. Place them in a microwave safe dish. Put 2 tablespoons of water into the microwave safe dish, cover with a lid, and microwave for 4 minutes.
4. Meanwhile in a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add in the onion and scallions, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes until the onion softens. Remove from heat and stir in the cumin.
5. To make breadcrumbs, toast the bread and place them in a food processor. Then in the food processor, combine the drained chickpeas, steamed broccoli, onion/cumin combination, tahini, and breadcrumbs. Process until you get a malleable green combination. Grab about half a cup of the combination and form “patties”. (I was able to form 8 burger-sized ones). Place the patties onto a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake them for 50 minutes, flipping them after 25 minutes.
6. In a small bowl, combine the tahini, water, garlic, salt, and lemon juice. Whisk until you get a smooth combination.

Because the burgers are a little dry, be sure to serve them with the sauce drizzled over in between two whole wheat hamburger buns. My non-vegetarian friends and family loved these burgers!

Voila!