Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Recipe: Chickpea Burger Salad

Okay...I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this is the world's most delicious meal....'cause it's not.  But it is super-healthy and really inexpensive to make.  I personally love the taste of the chickpea burgers, and AJ ate half of hers.  Mia didn't like it, but Chris was able to scarf down two of them. 

Ingredients
15 oz. can Chickpeas (low sodium)
15 oz can Kidney Beans (low sodium)
1 large carrot, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large handful cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 vegetable or chicken boullion cube, crumbled (low sodium if available)
1/4 Cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp. Tahini **(Optional, see note below.)
Mixed salad greens

At the grocery store, I saw that a tub of Tahini was about $7.00.  I thought that was too much money to spend for something that will go bad before I use it up, so I decided against buying the Tahini.  I have made this recipe without the tahini before, but I wanted to think if possible substitutions.  If your grocery store sells nuts and seeds in bulk, you could just buy a small amount of sesame seeds and make your own tahini.  But the store I was at didn't offer sesame seeds by the pound.  I figured that cashew or almond butter would be okay, but those were also really expensive.  Then I remembered that I had some trail mix at home...walnuts, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds....so when I got home I picked out the fruit and tossed a couple of handfuls of nuts into my coffee grinder.   I had to process it a couple times and stir it up, but after a couple of minutes it was nut butter (tasted pretty good and actually kind of close to tahini.)  So I used that as a substitute in this recipe.  But as I said before, I've made it before leaving this out altogether, and it was still fine. 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets.  Mix all ingredients together.  Process with food processor or handheld blender until blended but still fairly coarse.  Form into patties approximately 3 inches across and 1/2 inch thick.  I used a 3 tbsp ice cream scoop to measure.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 18 minutes. 

Place patties over salad, and add desired dressing. 

Makes six servings.

Cost Breakdown: 
Kidney Beans:  .75
Chickpeas:  .75
Carrot:  .15
Onion:  .35
Cilantro:  .50
Boullion:  .30
Tahini or nut butter:  .40
Salad greens:  2.00
Salad Dressing:  .35
Total cost:  $5.55
Cost per serving:  $0.93

Rating:
Taste:  5/10
Effort v. Payoff:  4/5
Kid-friendliness:  1/3
Bonus health points:  3
Total rating:  13 - (***)

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