So as it turns out, grad school takes up a lot of time. Yeah, duh, right? I just finished my finals this week, and all semester I’ve been sort of fretting about abandoning this blog–not because I care about it, but because I paid $45.99 for the hosting and URL. I kid, I kid. Well anyway, just as things all seem to get busy at once, they all seem to slow down at once too.
Then, my buddy Joe P. of Tower 41 Productions, who is pressing my band’s second album and whom I also proudly advertise on the tote bag I carry around, told me he had a bunch of recipes for me to try out. Add to that, my lone British reader MattJ sent me some lovely curry recipes that could be easily vegetarian- or vegan-ized that looked delicious and I never tried. And Laura’s been baking up a storm! Where is the failure here? Me. Fortunately, I never stopped cooking and having Rob take pictures, I just stopped posting. So anyway, here’s what’s coming up at thefoodsex:

Yeah! And to prove I’m not lying, here’s one of the recipes.

Chickpea Burgers

These were invented in a night of desperation, when Rob and I were both hungry and snipping at each other, as we’re prone to do when we don’t eat…oh, every hour or so. I frantically canvassed our pantry and fridge for stuff to throw together, and this is what happened.

You will need:
2 tsp olive oil
1 shallot, diced (or really, any onion but i like the sweetness of the shallot in this)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 TBS roasted red peppers, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs (or slightly less)
2 TBS chopped cilantro, with extra leaves for garnish
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
pinch of oregano
salt and pepper to taste

In a small skillet, heat 1 tsp of the olive oil and add the shallot and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the shallot is soft. Remove from heat.

Dump the chickpeas into a mixing bowl and smoosh them anyway you can–a potato masher, a fork, your toes, whatever. Alternately, you could do this in a food processor, but make sure not to puree the chickpeas, as you want some chunks in there. Add the garlic and shallot, roasted red peppers, cilantro and spices and stir. Now, begin to add the bread crumbs a little at a time. Start with half of the 1/3 cup and mix. Pull a handful of the mixture out and try to form it into a patty. Add more breadcrumbs if necessary.

Once you have reached a good “burger” consistency, form the mixture into even-sized patties. I can’t remember if this made three or four patties–I was probably too busy yapping at Rob (see above.) Heat the remaining tsp of olive oil in a skillet for a few minutes, but don’t let it get to the smoking point. Carefully place the patties into the oil and don’t move them for about 3 minutes. Gently flip them over when they begin to brown on the bottom, then cook to desired brownness/heat. Serve on a bun with cilantro leaves and roasted red peppers on top.

Oh, how I wish I’d had better buns for these. They would have been so good on a big crusty multi-grain roll, but my whole-grain-challenged better half is a white bread fanatic. Sigh.

Rob ate his with A-1 steak sauce, I ate mine with spicy mustard. Good stuff!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Main Dishes, News and Updates, Vegan, Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.