Chickpea, Applewood and red onion burgers

After pretty much avoiding cheese for a long time while dieting, I've been on a bit of a binge in the last few months.  Cravings for dairy are very strong and cheese is top of the list.  We had about six or seven different cheeses in the fridge this week and I wanted to make good use of some in a recipe.  Partly to stop me just eating cheese and bread at almost every meal... Applewood smoked is a cheese that adds a great deal of flavour to a meal and these burgers were pretty popular after the addition of a bit of mustard.  I only wish I'd had some wholegrain...

I used this Ocado recipe and made some adaptations to it.

Stats: - makes eight patties (or seven average ones and a slightly sad smaller one), serves four.

olive oil

one red onion, diced

two crushed garlic cloves

two teaspoons of cumin powder

half a teaspoon of cayenne

one tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

one tin of lentils, drained and rinsed

one tablespoon of tahini

two tablespoons fresh parsley

100g breadcrumbs (I blitz up ends of loaves and put them in the freezer, ready for dishes like this)

one beaten egg

115g Applewood smoked cheese - I cubed it but grating it would allow for a more even flavour
plain flour for dusting

In a frying pan, heat the olive oil.  Sweat the red onion for five or six minutes, until they turn translucent and soften.  Add the garlic and the spices.  Mix and heat for a further minute or two.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a food processor pulse to blitz the chickpeas, lentils, tahini, parsley and onion mixture to a rough mixture.

Take out and put into a large bowl, add the beaten egg, breadcrumbs and cheese chunks/grated cheese.   Mix.  Separate the mixture into eighths (about a handful each) and form into discs.  Put your flour onto a plate and dust both sides of the patties.

Heat your frying pan again and heat on both sides at a medium heat until both sides are golden.  This should take around six or seven minutes on each side.

Serve in whichever way you would like - I prefer to have chips than bread with burgers as I can't bring myself to double-carb.  This went very well with mustard and mayonnaise and I served them alongside these chips.  D wasn't sure at first but got on board as soon as there was some mustard involved.