Chickpea Cheeseburgers

I made these chickpea cheeseburgers for dinner last night; they were very frugal and very much enjoyed!  For those who are avoiding gluten, they’re also gluten-free.  I served them with sour cream, red pepper strips, and snow peas.  Since everyone enjoyed them and they were very frugal, I thought you’d appreciate if I shared it.  I’ll post my costs at the end.

As always, I make recipes up as I go along so I’ll try to estimate how much I used of each ingredient as accurately as I can.  This made enough as a main dish for our family of 11, about 50 4-inch burgers; you can either cut it in half (or 1/4!), or make the full recipe and put some in the freezer to use at a another time.

Chickpea Cheeseburgers

  • 2 lb dried chickpeas,  soaked, sprouted, and cooked
  • 1 large onion or 3 small onions, minced
  • 12 eggs (I used pastured eggs)
  • 1  c. arrowroot flour (if you want it to be gluten-free) or bulgur (cooked with 1 c. water or yogurt – I meant to soak this ahead but forgot)
  • 1 lb mozzarella or cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 T. salt
  • pepper to taste

(If you decide to use bulgur for this recipe as the thickener, start it cooking while you prepare the rest of the mixture.)

Blend the chickpeas in a food processor until they are somewhat smooth (they don’t have to be pureed, but you want them pretty well broken down).  You’ll probably find it helpful to add some liquid to this so they can blend easily – either water or the juice the chickpeas cooked in is good.  Add in the minced onion, garlic, and eggs.  Mix, then add the shredded cheese and spices.   Mix well, and add either arrowroot powder or cooked bulgur as the thickener.

Drop onto parchment-lined or greased baking pan into the size you desire.  We made them about 4 – 5 inches across.  Bake at 500 degrees until they are browned, about 10 – 15 minutes (smaller ones will cook faster).  They should stay in a burger form when they’re cooked through – if they’re falling apart, you need to cook it for longer.  Serve warm.

Here are my costs (remember that I buy almost everything on sale and if I didn’t the costs could be double what I’ve listed – but still would make for an inexpensive dinner!):

  • chickpeas – .59 lb – $1.18 total
  • onion – .28 lb (bought in 50 lb bag) – .28 total (I’m overestimating since one large onion was less an a pound but I prefer to overstate costs than to understate them)
  • eggs – 1.75 dozen – total $1.75
  • organic bulgur – .79 for 24 oz – .20 total
  • mozzarella/cheddar (bought in 5 lb block) – 4.69 lb – $4.69 total
  • garlic – 5 lb peeled organic garlic was $7 – .20 total
  • spices – not significant, but I’ll add another .15 for that

Total cost for burgers – $8.45 – since this served 9 people (not including dh and baby), it works out to .84 cents per person, and each person had enough for 5 – 6 burgers.  I think that served with more sides, three would have been enough per person.

The sour cream we served it with was 2.29 for a large container, sliced red peppers were .99 lb and used about 2 lb, and the snow peas were 1.99 lb (used 1 pound).  I meant to chop up a large head of napa cabbage but got busy with something else and forgot about it until halfway through dinner – that would have only been an additional .50 since I bought a case with 20 heads for $7 from the Asian grocery (but we would have ended up eating less of the other things!). So $6.29 total for the add-ons.

The total cost for the entire meal was $14.61, which works out to $1.62 a person.  Most of our kids have adult appetites, with the exception of the 2 and 3 year olds.  I love figuring out these kinds of things! 🙂

(This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays , Real Food Wednesdays, and Pennywise Platter Thursday.)

Avivah

9 thoughts on “Chickpea Cheeseburgers

  1. Okay, Avivah…I give up! Where in the world are you finding organic bulgur for .79 a pound? I get it “cheap” here, and am paying 1.49/lb for conventional! I’m in awe of your thriftiness…

  2. Avivah, do you shell your chickpeas? And if so, how? I’m guessing you don’t because that’s a lot of chickpeas, but I read that you should because the skins are indigestible. Boy, I sure haven’t figured out how to do it quickly.

    1. Hi, Lorelei, welcome! I don’t know how one would shell chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) – the skins are thin, part of the bean really, and become very soft with cooking. Is it possible that you’re thinking of a garden pea?

      1. No, it’s definitely chickpeas. I meant skin, not shell. NT talks about doing it in their chickpea recipes, but doesn’t say how. A search online hasn’t helped either, so I thought I’d ask, but I guess you don’t do it :).

        I really enjoy your blogs by the way! The toothpaste one was quite timely for us. We’re not Jewish, so a lot of the blogs go over my head :), but I still find it interesting! Good luck with all your preparations this year. It sounds like a lot of planning!

  3. You just peel them AFTER you cook them. Doing that supposedly makes your hummus much creamier as well — a friend of mine tried, I didn’t see much difference. It is a serious pain in the tushie! I’d rather have the extra bit of fiber.

    1. Thanks for clarifying, Lorelei! It’s not shocking to me that I overlooked this suggestion if it was in NT – I don’t do things that make a lot of extra work unless there’s a big benefit! 🙂

      Sorry that so many things aren’t so relevant for everyone right now – it tends to be like that around holidays! I’m glad you still find it interesting even if it’s not very applicable for you.

      Yael – lol! I was thinking as I read your comment explaining that they’re creamier if you peel them after you cook them, that it sounded like a major pain in the neck, and then saw the rest of your comments. 😆

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