Gastronomically Challenged: FELAFEL BURGER

It's no secret that the humble chickpea is popular all over the world. I'd call them nature's 'blank canvas' because they're incredibly versatile and with a bit of creativity can make an outstanding curry, stew, soup, salad or dip. Traditionally served in pita bread and sold as street food, felafel is the Middle Eastern term for ground and deep fried chickpeas. These burgers are a protein-filled, vego-friendly dinner/BBQ option. Better still, for the pantry hoarders out there (you know who you are) you now have a reason to use those "emergency" canned beans before they expire after months of collecting dust.

Makes 4

400g chickpeas
50g toasted pine nuts
1 onion, diced very finely
1 carrot, grated
1/2 lime (zest and juice)
2 tspoons of cumin
2 tspoons of grounder coriander
salt and pepper

Drain the chickpeas and whizz through a food processor to a fine, crumbly paste. Set aside in a large bowl and repeat step #1 with the toasted pine nuts.

Mix in the vegetables, seasoning, lime zest and juice.

It should now look like this:

Whisk an egg and add a few spoonfuls. The purpose of this step is to add "bind" to the dry mix so you can form patties. A few recipes I came across didn't mention adding egg, but without some element of stickiness you will have a hard time stopping the burgers from falling apart in the frying pan.

Now, by hand you can form the mix into burgers. Dust them with flour.