Baked Falafel Burgers

Last week we were expecting some sudden guests and I was in a fit as to what to prepare on such short notice. I had nothing at home and I usually don’t like serving store bought goodies to our guests. When I was fretting too much, S suggested that I should calm down and that for once store bought samosas and homemade hot coffee should be fine. Still, I asked him soak some chickpeas (Kabuli Chana). With less than four hours in hand, how will the chickpeas soak enough was what S asked me. That’s when I used one of the tricks my amma and MIL follow. Take a hot-pack, fill it with boiling water and add washed chickpeas to it. Close the lid of the hot pack tightly, let it sit for 3-4hrs and you would have perfectly soaked chickpeas or any legumes that require overnight soaking in quite lesser time.

At the time of panic, I thankfully remembered Srividhya’s Baked Falafel recipe and had some chickpeas at home too! 🙂 I slightly modified her recipe and the result was extraordinary. Since I didn’t want to make something again for the dinner that day, I ended up making couple of bigger patties that could serve as burger patties. I had some iceberg lettuce with me and with a teaspoon of eggless garlic mayonnaise, we had super yummy falafel burgers – with a fraction of cost from what one spends at popular joints and needless to say, these were made with just a teaspoon of oil – hence much healthier compared to the deep fried patties from outside.

To make Baked Falafel Burgers

Serves – 2

Time to prepare – 40mins

What I used –

For Falafel Patties

• Chickpeas, 2 cups (soaked and boiled in a pressure cooker for three whistles)
• Onion, 1 large
• Coriander Leaves, ½ cup (tightly packed)
• Red Chilli Powder, 2 tsp
• Garlic Pods, 5
• Coriander Powder, 1 tsp
• Dry Roasted Coriander Seeds, 2 tsp
• Salt, as required
• Oil, 2 tsp

For Burger –

• Burger Buns, 2
• Iceberg Lettuce, few leaves
• Eggless Garlic Mayonnaise, 2 teaspoon (one for each burger)

How I made –

1. Preheat the oven on 180deg C for atleast 15mins.
2. In a mixer jar, add boiled and cooled down chickpeas, roughly chopped onion, roughly chopped coriander leaves. Pulse it for 3-4 times without adding water. The mixture should be coarsely ground.
3. In a bowl, add the ground mixture, finely chopped garlic, red chilli powder, salt, coriander powder and roasted coriander seeds. And mix well. When made a lump, the mixture should hold its shape. A teaspoon of water can be added if the mixture is too dry.
4. Line a baking tray with baking sheet and apply a teaspoon of oil. Make equal sized patties of the mixture and line them on the baking tray. For burger patties, make out patties according to the size of your burger bun with thickness of atleast a cm.
5. Bake them on 180deg C for 15mins. Remove the tray from oven, apply a teaspoon of oil on the top of each patty and put the tray back in the oven. Grill them for another 15mins until the tops are golden brown. Alternatively, one can flip the patties after the initial 15mins and bake again. But there is a chance of the patties breaking if not being careful with the flipping.
6. Let the patties stand out for 5mins, before removing from the tray. Patties can be served as it is with mayonnaise.
7. To arrange them into burgers, slice the burger buns in half. On the base of the bun, spread mayonnaise and place a few shredded leaves of iceberg lettuce.
8. Place the falafel patty on top and cover it the other part of the burger bun. Serve hot.

Note: The baking time can vary from oven to oven, keep checking the falafels after ten minutes for doneness. Once they are golden brown, they can be removed. The outsides are crisp and the insides are soft, making it perfect for burgers but can be had as a snack by itself. If preferred, tomato ketchup or onion slices can be added in the burger while stacking. If you don’t have an OTG, these can be shallow fried on a tawa on stove top as well. Unlike deep fried goodies, these doesn’t go soggy after sometime but taste best when served hot 🙂

Submitting this recipe to the Recipe Challenge Contest/Week 3 at Lin's Recipes. Checkout her weekly challenge contests for interesting ingredients and a variety of recipes by our fellow bloggers.