Falafel Burgers
Serves 4
Try this tasty vegetarian take on burgers!
Ingredients
- 2 cans chickpeas (15 ounces each), drained and rinsed
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
- A large handful of parsley, chopped
- 3-4 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon coriander
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup tahini paste
- 3 tablespoons water
- Juice and zest of 2 lemons
- 4 sandwich-size whole wheat pita pockets
- 1-1 1/2 cups romaine lettuce, shredded
- 1/2 English (seedless) cucumber, sliced
- 1/4-1/2 cup hot pepperoncini peppers, sliced (depending on how hot you like it)
- 2 vine-ripe tomatoes, sliced
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
- Pat the chickpeas dry with a paper towel and place them into a food processor. Add in the red onion, garlic, parsley, flour, spices and seasonings along with the beans and process until fairly smooth and very thick, so that you can form patties.
- Pre-heat a large nonstick skillet with 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Form four large patties and cook for 3 minutes on each side.
- While the patties are cooking, get the sauce started by placing the tahini paste into a medium size mixing bowl. Add the water, lemon juice and lemon zest and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set the sauce aside for the falafel burger assembly.
- Cut the edge of each pita to form big pockets, then wrap them in foil and place them in the pre-heated oven to get warm, 3 minutes.
- Remove the pitas from the oven and sauce each pita with a couple of tablespoons of the tahini sauce. Place some shredded lettuce, sliced cucumber, peppers and tomatoes in each pita, then slide in the falafel burgers and enjoy! Pass the extra tahini sauce at the table.