Garbanzo Bean and Sprout Patties Recipe

I was a vegetarian for more than 5 years in the 90’s (that sounds sooooo long ago). When I got married and had kids, I started eating meat again to make preparing meal for my omnivorous family members a bit easier. Over the years though, I’ve felt a bit conflicted about the amount of meat we eat, what it does to the environment, and how the animals are treated before slaughter.

I’ve been wanting my family to eat much less meat for awhile now. I am on the edge of becoming a vegetarian again, but haven’t wanted to impose on the rest of the family by refusing to cook meat. So, when I find vegetarian (even vegan) recipes like this one that my family *might* consider eating, I try it out immediately just to see if I can add one more veggie meal to the list of things that they actually will eat.

This recipe is originally from Heidi Kennedy’s Super Natural Cooking on page 155. She used sprouted garbanzo beans in her recipe, but suggests canned garbanzo beans if you can’t find them.

Garbanzo Bean and Sprout Patties Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
4 large eggs
1/2 t fine sea salt
1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
1 onion, chopped
Finely grated zest from 1 large lemon
1 c sprouts; such as broccoli or alfalfa sprouts
1 c bread crumbs, toasted, preferably whole grain
1 T extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
Combine beans, eggs, and salt in a food processor and puree until only a few chunks remain. Pour into a mixing bowl. Put the onion in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. My kids prefer not to hear the crunch of onion in their food so I chop it finely. It will cook faster. Stir onion, cilantro, zest, and sprouts into the mixing bowl with the pureed beans. Add bread crumbs and stir until its well combined. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes so the crumbs can soak up the excess moisture. The mixture should be pretty moist, but dry enough to form stable patties. Add more moisture if needed by adding water or egg. Make it drier by adding more crumbs.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add four patties, cover, and cook for 7-8 minutes. If the patties have not browned after 10 minutes, Heidi suggests turning up the heat slightly. Flip the patties and brown the other side until golden, about 7 minutes. Once finished, remove from pan and cool on a rack. Finish cooking the rest of the patties. The recipe should make 10-12 patties about 1.5″ thick.

A few notes: My kids didn’t like the sprouts in the mixture. I imagine that zucchini would work pretty well although I haven’t tried it yet. Some of the ratios may need to be adjusted so the mixture remains the proper consistency. Also, Heidi suggests cutting the patty in half and stuffing fillings in between the two halves. Fillings could include more sprouts, tomato, avocado, cheese, etc. I used buns, which if great too!