Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Yogurt Dip

I know, I know. I haven't posted in over a week. And this has been why.

Notice how half of the books there are about Endgame by Samuel Beckett? Yeah. I really, really don't understand that play. The most annoying thing is, I'm pretty sure that one of the points of it is that it deliberately doesn't make sense, so writing an essay on it is proving pretty tricky! Anyone read it at all?

So what do I do when I don't understand things? Distract myself of course! I've been wanting to make chickpea burgers for ages, but somehow never got round to it. I decided to bake instead of frying them, and they held together really well, but if you wanted to fry them that would work too.

Chickpea Burgers
Makes four.

Ingredients for burgers

One can of chickpeas

2-3 spring onions, sliced

One clove garlic, sliced
2/3 cup or 80g chopped celery

Half a beaten egg

A slice of bread whizzed up in the blender to make breadcrumbs, or a handful of ready made

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6, and prepare a baking tray with cooking spray. In a blender, whizz up the chickpeas, spring onions, garlic, and celery until almost a paste. It won't look very appetizing at this moment, but trust me, it will all work out!

In a bowl, add half the egg and the breadcrumbs and mix well, until the mixture is firm and sticky (add more breadcrumbs or egg if needed). Split the mixture into four and shape into patties, then place on the baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway, until the centre of the burgers are firm and the outsides are golden.

That's it! As they were so ridiculously easy to make, I thought I'd mess around with things that we had in the cupboard and make a dip to go with them.

Tahini Yogurt Dip

Ingredients for dip

1/2 cup or 120g plain/low-fat Greek yogurt

10g tahini paste

half a clove garlic

juice of half a lemon

1 tsp honey

Combine all ingredients. Spread on burgers and enjoy!

Blackstrap Molasses Banana Muffins

There's some ingredients that you just don't need often. Blackstrap molasses, for example. I bought a jar for one specific recipe, and it sat in the cupboard for ages, untouched, until one day I was making banana muffins, lost the baking powder, and came across it entirely by accident as I frantically rummaged around. It tasted great when I used it in these gingerbread men, so what would it be like in other recipes too?

Not only does it add taste though - its actually good for you. A by-product of the process of making sugar cane, blackstrap molasses is unlike many other sweeteners, including regular molasses, which have little nutritional value. Instead, the blackstrap variety is nutrient dense, providing a great source of iron, calcium, copper, manganese, potassium and magnesium. So it makes a great addition to these yummy, healthy banana muffins!

Blackstrap Molasses Banana Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

85g or 3 oz or 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

115g or 4 oz or scant 1 cup white flour

2 medium eggs

40g plain/Greek yoghurt

2 medium, very ripe bananas

65g brown sugar

One tablespoon blackstrap molasses

1 heaped tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence

75g margarine

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5. Sift the whole wheat flour, plain flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the salt, cinnamon and sugar and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and mash in the bananas, adding the vanilla essence, yoghurt, margarine and blackstrap molasses until smooth. Mix the wet and dry ingredients, stirring quickly with a fork until just blended, then immediately fill 12 muffin cups with the mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes, checking often, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Have you ever used blackstrap molasses?