Chickpeas, Again

I cooked a lot of chickpeas yesterday and today I used some of them to make patties. We also had leftover barley from yesterday and I used it too, and didn’t add any flour to the patty dough. Barley seemed to bind the dough well, but the patties were trying to fall apart when I fried them, so I added some flour to the recipe. We had one lemon drop chili and one hotter mystery variety chili chopped in our patties, but the amount could have been doubled or tripled. Or the chilies can be omitted.

I like to fry patties on a pancake pan, but regular frying pan is fine too.

Chickpea Patties
(makes 12)

6 dl cooked chickpeas
3 carrots
2,5 dl cooked barley (or rice)
0,5 dl wheat flour
2 tsp curry powder
0,5 tsp ground cumin
0,5 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
fresh chilies (optional)

oil for frying

Mash the chickpeas with a blender, or with a potato masher. Adding 0,5 dl water makes blending easier. Grate the carrots. Mix everything together except chilies and oil. Mince the chilies. Take couple of tablespoons patty dough and make a flat oval with your hands. Put some chili on it, fold in half and shape into a round patty. Make rest of the patties same way. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the patties on medium heat about 5 minutes on both sides or until they look ready.

Chickpeas and Eggplant For Dinner

Chickpeas are my favourite legumes and eggplant is my favourite vegetable, so I thought anything made of them would be awesome. I was wrong, todays dinner was only good and not awesome. I think something was missing, maybe lemon juice. But after adding soy sauce (or hot sauce like nomad did) it was pretty close to what I had had in mind. I wanted to serve it with quinoa, but we were out of it and I boiled barley instead.

Chickpeas and Eggplant

2 tbsp oil
0,5 tsp each: caraway seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and ground coriander
2 small onions
2-3 garlic cloves
2 milk or medium hot chilies
1 eggplant
half bell pepper (optional)
water
2 tbsp tomato puré
0,5 tsp thyme and oregano
4 dl cooked chickpeas
salt and pepper

Cut the onions in half moons, mince garlic and chili. Cube the eggplant. Heat the oil in a pot or pan and fry caraway, cumin, mustard seeds and coriander until the seeds start popping. Add onions, garlic and chili and sauté few minutes. Add eggplant cubes and sauté several minutes stirring now and then. Cube the bell pepper too if you’re using it and add them, 2 dl water, tomato puré and herbs to the pot. Simmer until eggplants are soft. Add chickpeas, season with salt and pepper and add more water if it doesn’t look saucy enough. Heat thoroughly. Serve with your favourite cooked grains.

You CAN Make An Omelet Without Breaking Eggs

I planned serving a brunch on Saturday, but we slept late and had to go to a pub at noon to see a gig, so we ended up having the “brunch” after lunch time. I had planned serving pea muffins, Waldorf salad, Chickpea omelet and a bigger version of broccoli pie, but I skipped the pie, because there were fewer eaters than I had thought. We drank Mimosas and since it’s a fruity drink and Waldorf salad also contains fruits, I thought serving fruits or dessert wasn’t necessary. The omelet was filled with soy sausage and leeks, but other fillings are good too.

Vegan Omelet

1,5 dl chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
0,5 tsp salt
0,5 tsp turmeric
0,5 tsp paprika
1, 5 dl water
2 tbsp oil for frying

Fillings of you choice: sliced soy sausage, chopped leek, thinly sliced onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, seitan, corn, herbs etc.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour the water to the bowl and whisk together. Add the fillings and stir. heat the oil in a frying pan, pour an even layer of batter to the pan and fry on medium heat until the top of the omelet is thickened and the edges are dry. Flip and fry couple of minutes on the other side or until golden brown.

Easy Weekday Dinner

An easy and fairly quick dinner we made one evening after work and school. We had sprouted and cooked chickpeas, but canned could be used too.

Chickpea Curry

3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
1,5 tsp good curry powder
2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
3 medium potatoes
2 celery ribs
4 dl cooked or canned chickpeas
5 dl water
50g creamed coconut
salt to taste

Chop the shallots and mince the garlic. Wash the potatos well (or peel) and cube. Slice the celery ribs. Heat the oil and fry cumin, mustard seeds and curry powder for a minute. Add shallots and garlic and fry until shallots are soft and translucent. Add potato cubes and simmer 5 minutes. Add celery and chickpeas and simmer few more minutes. Add water, bring to boil and add creamed coconut. Simmer until potatoes and celery are soft. Add more water if your curry looks dry or boil on higher heat if it has too much liquid. Add salt to taste and serve with cooked barley, rice or other grains.

Starring: The Chickpea Loaf

In Finland we have a cooking magazine called Maku. I haven’t found many interesting recipes from issues I’ve read, most of them are for omnivores and vegetarian recipes are usually so basic recipes that I could whip them up any time (could be good recipes for beginners, though). This loaf from issue 6/08 is exception. It’s easy to make and it’s best loaf I’ve ever eaten. This time I baked it in star shaped dish, but usually I use an elongated dish.

Chickpea Loaf

600g cooked or canned chickpeas (3 dl dry)
150g chopped onions
1 tbsp canola oil for frying
2dl rolled oats
2 dl oat cream
1 dl canola oil
4 tbsp potato flour
2 tbsp curry paste (less if it’s strong)
2,5 tsp salt
2 tsp ground aniseed or ground fennel seeds
2 tsp basil
0,5 tsp ground black pepper
150 g grated parsnip
2 dl sunflower seeds

to the dish:
margarine
1 dl sesame seeds (bread crumbs can be used too)

Fry the chopped onions in oil.

Put everything except parsnip and sunflower seeds to a big bowl and puré them with a hand held blender. Add grated parsnip and sunflower seeds and blend a little longer. Some of the seeds should be crushed and some should stay unbroken.

If you’re not using a non-stick dish, cover at least the bottom with piece of parchment paper. Grease the dish (and paper) with margarine and coat with sesame seeds. Pour the chick pea mash to the dish and even out. Bake in 175 Celsius degrees for about an hour. Let the loaf cool down a bit and flip over. Can be served hot or cold.