Egg-free chickpea and potato patties are a delicious snack to serve as a finger-food appetizer or a side dish. They are easy to prepare, tasty and spiced. This recipe is ideal for those who like to eat healthy and light; they contain no eggs, gluten, lactose, milk or dairy derivatives or other foods of animal origin. It is both a vegetarian and vegan recipe and suitable for anyone who cannot eat dishes that contain eggs. The chickpea patties can be baked in the oven or prepared in whichever way is more convenient. In this recipe you can also use canned chickpeas.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 15
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- 3.5 oz boiled potatoes (about 2/3 cup mashed)
- to taste fine salt
- to taste chopped rosemary needles
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (heaping)
- 1 pinch ground pepper
- 1 pinch ground turmeric
- 1 a thin slice of onion
- as needed breadcrumbs and chickpea flour (in equal parts)
Steps
Cook the chickpeas according to your usual method and drain them thoroughly from the cooking water. They must be well cooked.
If you use canned chickpeas, rinse them thoroughly under running water to remove the preserving liquid.
Meanwhile, boil the potato as well.
When it’s cooked, drain it, peel it, pass it through a potato ricer or mash it and let it cool for a few minutes before adding it to the chickpeas.
In a blender (or with an immersion blender) put the drained chickpeas, the oil, salt, onion and spices.
Blend everything until you obtain a mixture that is soft yet dense at the same time.
At first it may seem that the ingredients don’t bind and that the mixture is too dry. Resist the temptation to add liquids or more oil.
Using a spoon, mix and gather the ingredients still on the bottom of the blender bowl and continue blending.
Transfer the chickpea mixture to a large bowl and add the mashed potatoes. Mix by hand with a spoon to combine the two mixtures (the moisture released by the mashed potatoes and the chickpeas will help form the patty mixture and give it the right consistency). Since the mixture contains no eggs, you can taste it and adjust salt and seasonings if necessary.
Only if you find it absolutely necessary you can add a scant tablespoon of the chickpea cooking water or plain water.
In a small bowl put breadcrumbs mixed in equal parts with chickpea flour.
With a teaspoon take a walnut-sized portion of the mixture, roll it between your hands, coat it in the breadcrumb mixture and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue until all the mixture is used.
Transfer the baking sheet to the refrigerator, in the coldest part, cover with plastic wrap and let them firm up for an hour.
After an hour, preheat the oven and set it to 392°F.
While the oven heats, take the baking sheet out of the fridge and quickly re-coat the patties in the breadcrumb and chickpea flour mix.
When the oven is ready, bake on the lowest rack for about 20 minutes (cooking times may vary depending on ovens; mine is gas, static and with heat only from the bottom) or until they are nicely browned on the bottom.
Brown the top for a few more minutes as well. During cooking the patties will tend to spread and flatten. Do not touch them until they are cold to avoid breaking them.Extra tip. If you want the chickpea patties to keep their shape, especially if they will be served as finger food, after taking them out of the fridge and re-coating them generously in the breadcrumb mix, place each patty into a small cupcake liner about 2 inches in diameter. Place the liners on a baking tray and bake as described above.
Again, after removing the tray from the oven, let the chickpea patties cool in the liners without touching or removing them, to avoid damaging the still very, very soft mixture.
