The Chickpea

Chickpea and Cilantro patty- is an all-year round food that can be prepared ahead of time, and reheated with a griddle for seared perfection. This recipe made about 13 small-sized patties for myself. If you are cooking for more people, or want bigger patties add more rice and chickpeas.

INGREDIENTS: 
1 can of prepared chickpeas OR 1 cup of raw-to-be-prepared chickpeas
1 small saucepan of cooked rice (white, jasmine, or any that you prefer.)
1-2 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon of cumin powder
1-2 tablespoons of Adobo seasoning for taste |OPTIONAL| (I used Lime Adobo)
2 tablespoons of black pepper for taste |OPTIONAL|
Chopped stems of fresh cilantro (chop as finely as you like)
Chopped red onion (as much as you want)
Minced garlic |OPTIONAL| (as much as you want)
Oil of your choice to keep mixture together (eyeball this)


DIRECTIONS:

1. Place prepared chickpeas in a large mixing bowl. Mash the chickpeas with a masher. If you use a food processor, the mixture might come out too mushy. Add the rice and mash slightly, leaving some grains of rice so that the mixture is grainy and not mushy. Add in the garlic, onion, and cilantro. Mix that up.

2. Add in the powders and mix. Add 1/4 cup of oil first, and mix the ingredients inside of the bowl. The consistency of the mixture should be heavy, and the oil should allow the mixture to stick together and not loosely fall apart. Add more oil if needed.

3. After everything is mixed together, wash your hands with water to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands. Use a spoon to scoop the mixture into you hands. Form into a ball if it is easier, and then shape it into a round disk. The disk should be thick, and not too thin.

4. Heat up a griddle to 250°F, or use a skillet on the stove-top. Lightly coat the griddle or skillet with non-stick cooking spray. I used olive oil cooking spray. Place the patties on the griddle one after another so that when you flip one, the next one can be flipped right after. Let them brown on each side.

ENJOY: I had this with a pasta and vegan alfredo sauce dinner. The combination was tasteful to me. I also had these crumbled over a salad. These would be yummylicious with sour cream too. I have seen recipes for vegan sour cream, but I have not found one that does not have a 20-ingredient list or that does not go through a fermentation process. My mom told me about how Arabs make their sour cream, so I am going to try the same process in a vegan-friendly way and share my recipe later.