Do you ever come up with a new and delicious dish, only to google it and discover that everyone and their dog has created something similar? This was definitely the case with these burgers, but I’m going ahead and posting my version anyways. 🙂

These come together quickly, and are very rich and creamy on the inside. Although they contain plenty of spinach, I think they would be best served alone or with a salad, as serving them inside a sandwich or on a bed of rice/grains might seem too heavy. They are quite mild, so if you’re eating them plain you might want to perk them up with a bit more cumin or spiciness, although I thought they were totally delicious with a little extra hot sauce on the side. I, however, would make a great candidate for Hot Sauce Addicts Anonymous (H.S.A.A?), were it a reality.

These are gluten free, but if you’re not gluten free, I think you could sub out some of the chickpea flour for wheat flour, or even a couple tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, although they do firm up nicely while they cook as is.

-1 medium onion, minced

-3 cloves garlic, crushed

-1 c. chickpeas

-3 c. packed spinach leaves

-1 carrot, grated

-2 tbsp. soy sauce (likely less if you’re using canned/salted chickpeas)

-1 tsp. cumin

-2 tbsp. peanut butter

-1 tbsp. nutritional yeast

-1 tsp. sriracha hot sauce

-1/2 c. chickpea flour

Cook the onion in oil or water in a pan over medium heat until soft and translucent, then add garlic and cook for another minute. Add the chickpeas, spinach, and carrot, and cook until the spinach is fully wilted and the carrot is softened. Make sure that you let as much liquid as possible cook off. Dump into a mixing bowl, and stir in the soy sauce, cumin, peanut butter, nutritional yeast, hot sauce, and chickpea flour. I didn’t bother trying to smush the chickpeas at all, although you could. Allow the mixture to cool. In big spoonfulls (~1/3 c.?) form the mixutre into thick patties and lightly pan fry, using only a couple teaspoons of oil for several burgers, over medium heat until browned on both sides. Alternatively, I bet you could bake them just fine, although I tend to fry my burgers – it’s faster! Makes six burgers.

-Eve