Chickpea Walnut Patties

April 14, 2013

Chickpea Walnut Patties

These chickpea walnut patties are a great example of how to turn simple ingredients into impressive snacks in just a few easy steps. They are not only very tasty, but also highly nutritious, providing an arsenal of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein.

I love crunchy snacks and these patties reflect that. I had some leftover toasted walnuts after making Crunchy Sticky Bites and adding them in this recipe made a big difference in taste and texture.

My only regret is that I couldn't make these patties 100% gluten-free, as I had intended. Pure oats are hard to come by here; I guess the safest bet is to order them online. To keep the patties gluten-free, make sure to use pure oats/oat flour, nut flour or chickpea flour (besan, gram flour).

I've used 1 Tb oil in this recipe to cook the onion; you can use veggie stock instead, to keep it oil-free.

The patties are not crumbly and form a nice crust. Their taste is best as soon as they're cool enough to eat and the texture is even firmer after a couple of hours.


Chickpea Walnut Patties
Makes 19 (5 cm w, 1 cm h)
Print Recipe

  • 1 Tb olive oil (I use extra virgin)
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp salt (sea salt or Himalayan)
  • 1/2 cup canned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, thoroughly rinsed and drained (about 2 3/4 cups)
  • 1 Tb dried dill (fresh would taste even better)
  • 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • 1/2 cup whole rolled oats (old-fashioned oats), ground into flour

Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Cook the onion covered for about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low in between to sweat the onion, not fry it.

Add garlic, spices and cook for a minute until fragrant (season the mixture as you like with additional spices and herbs). Add chopped tomatoes, salt and bring the heat back to medium. With the spatula break the larger chunks of tomatoes into small pieces. Cook the mixture covered for 7-8 minutes until most of the moisture has evaporated, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick. The time will depend on how much liquid the tomatoes have.

Add the chickpeas and cook for 2-3 minutes until heated through. Mash them with a potato masher to form a chunky mixture.

Chickpea Walnut Patties

Add dill and mix. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile chop the walnuts and grind the oats. Add them to the mixture and mix till incorporated.

Keep a glass of water near and lightly wet your hands. Form balls with the mixture, flatten them between your palms, then use your fingers to smooth the surfaces and even out the thickness. I made them 5 cm wide and about 1 cm thick. Arrange the patties on a plate. Keep wetting your hands after 2-3 patties, so they don't stick.

Chickpea Walnut Patties

Heat a non-stick pan on medium, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the patties a few at a time, leaving some space between them to easily turn them upside down. Cook them for 4-5 minutes on each side until firm and golden-brown. If the heat is too low, they will stick and won't form that nice crust. If the heat is too high they will turn dark brown or burn and not cook through.

Chickpea Walnut Patties

Put a kitchen towel (paper or cloth) on a plate. Put the cooked patties on it, to prevent moistening from the steam. While they cool turn them upside down once or twice. That way the crust remains firm. When just warm, transfer them to a serving plate.

Chickpea Walnut Patties

For those of you not allergic to gluten, you could also make my delicious Whole Wheat Burger Buns to eat the patties with.

Those allergic to gluten could try any of my gluten-free wraps (cheelas); just break the patties in half, put a few of them in a line in the centre of the wraps along with sliced vegetables, sauces or just drizzle some lemon juice over them and roll them up. My favourite are the Celeriac Wraps because they have a mild flavour and work in many combinations.

I like them topped with a slice of tomato or broken into bite-sized pieces and added to a simple tomato sauce flavoured with dill, olive oil, salt and bay leaves.

Chickpea Walnut Patties in Tomato Sauce

Since we're at the beans chapter, if you're feeling adventurous you could turn the patty mixture into beanballs with some inspiration from Chocolate and Beyond's mouthwatering Baked Aduki Beanballs. That's my next chickpea experiment in the kitchen.

Update: I've just made these patties into bite-sized balls, 35 of them, and they were absolutely delicious with the tomato-dill sauce. Where I'm from, we generally pair sauces with polenta.

Chickpea Balls

I baked the balls at 350°F (180°C) for 30 minutes on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, then added them to the cooked sauce.

Chickpea Balls in Tomato Sauce

To make the sauce, finely chop one large onion and cook it with 2 Tb olive oil in a large pot on medium heat, until softened. Add 5 garlic cloves, minced, 2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes, 1 Tb dill, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 cup water and salt to taste. Cook covered for 10-15 minutes, turn heat off and add the balls. Serve with polenta, or even rice.

Enjoy and spread the magic!:)


If you've tried these patties I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

28 comments:

Sandy

Wow they look divine :-)

Vegan Magic

Thank you, Sandy. Give them a try sometime, you'll love them:)

Unknown

wow..patties looks tempting..what camera are you using ? beautiful clicks

Vegan Magic

Thank you so much, Gayathri:) That would be my old buddy Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7.

Julia

I tried these tonight for dinner, and they were awesome. Pretty quick and easy to make, too. They are so flavorful, so I chose to serve them simply, stacked with cucumber and sprouts, and drizzled with very little olive oil and balsamic. Delicious!

Vegan Magic

Julia, that sounds like a very delicious combination:) Thank you so much for your feedback and for trying this recipe, I'm very happy you enjoyed the patties:)

Anonymous

Wow these look amazing!

I am not vegan, but currently on a 30 day vegan challenge and I have a new appreciation for vegan cuisine, and I can't wait to try these.

Vegan Magic

Roxy, I am so happy you're giving veganism a chance:) Vegan food is unexpectedly easy to make and absolutely delicious. In 30 days you can enjoy so many new foods that you may not want to go back;) If you need more inspiration, you'll find plenty on VegWeb and Finding Vegan. I hope you enjoy these patties and look forward to your feedback.

Caveman

This looks amazing.. I am new to vegetarian/vegan life..Only 3 weeks into it and looking for recipes to change things up.

I think I would use the chickpea balls with spaghetti squash to simulate spaghetti and meatballs :)

Thanks for sharing your recipes..

Vegan Magic

Caveman, I'm so happy to know you're vegan now and thrilled that you found some inspiration on my blog:) I haven't tried spaghetti squash, because it's not available here, but I'm sure I would enjoy your suggestion. There are more easy recipes on my blog, I hope they match your taste:) Thank you very much for your visit.

Leny

¡¡Hola Adriana!! ¿sabes español? ¿cómo supiste que había publicado tu receta? I was very surprised to read your comment because I was at work and I was waiting to come back home to let you know I made it.
Is just delicious with lots of flavour in it, so soft and crispy at the same time.
I'm glad you liked my post, I made an effort to make it as good as yours.
Once again I must thank you for sharing all these scrumptious recipes!!!
Your friend and big fan
Leny xx

Vegan Magic

¡Hola Leny! Being Romanian I easily understand Spanish, but I've also studied it in college. I haven't spoken nor written in Spanish for long, so it was a great pleasure reading your post and commenting:) The link to it appeared in my stats, that's how I came to know about it. I guess someone clicked the link you provided. No matter how many times I make a recipe and how well it turns out, there's always a chance that someone else will not be as successful, so it was a real delight seeing those delicious pictures of your burgers. Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try and for all the lovely things you wrote about the burgers/patties:)

Leny

You are adorable! :-) Gracias de nuevo, sigo recomendando tu web a mis amigos porque en Instagram tenemos un pequeño grupo vegetariano con ganas de recetas ricas y deliciosas.
Besos
Lxx

Vegan Magic

Leny, te lo agradezco!:) It's wonderful to share great recipes with a group, I do that too and it's so inspiring:)

Karielyn@TheHealthyFamilyandHome

Hi Adriana! I finally got around to making these (they've been on my to-make list since I first saw them!) and they were to die for! I was ready to stop after sauteing the onions and spices and eat that straight from the pan, but the more ingredients I added, it kept getting better. They held together very nicely and had a nice texture and combination of flavors. I topped mine with a dill mayo dressing. Thanks for sharing, this recipe is a keeper ;)

Vegan Magic

Karielyn, that's fantastic news!:) I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the patties so much:) Even more than the taste, it's the crunchy texture I love about them. The dill mayo dressing sounds yummy! Thank you so much for letting me know how they turned out:)

Unknown

Made the chickpea balls swimming in the tomato dill sauce last night for dinner. Had a few dinner guests and everyone was very impressed! Yum! I will definitely be making this again. Thanks for the recipe!

Vegan Magic

Kayla, that's fantastic news! I am delighted that everyone enjoyed them. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience with this recipe.

Anonymous

Hello, I made these and they were fabulous. I am wondering what you would think of making this recipe into a vegan "meat" loaf?

Vegan Magic

Hi. Thank you very much for giving the recipe a try and letting me know how you liked the patties. The recipe would need some tweaking in order to turn these into a loaf. It's a great idea!:)

Anonymous

I am so trying these. They look so good. With sauce and polenta. Yum!!!

Vegan Magic

Linda, they're sooooo good with sauce and polenta! That reminds me I haven't made them in a long time. I might try a different version next time, maybe spice them up a bit:) I hope you enjoy them:)

sharon

wondering if these can be made in advance and frozen. if so, how would you recommend reheating?

Vegan Magic

Sharon, I'm afraid I can't help with this one - the only foods I ever freeze are ice cream and fruit. If you do try freezing them, please let us know how that works out. Thank you for stopping by.

Christina Bauer

I made these for dinner tonight and they are MAGNIFICENT. So easy and delicious and healthy! I may have topped mine with a slice of cheese... Not so vegan. Happy to have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner!

Vegan Magic

I'm so happy you enjoyed them:) Just been over to your blog. Wow such creative recipes and some of those combinations sound impossible yet delicious. I so want to try some of your recipes. Many thanks for the feedback!

Unknown

These are now a staple in our home! Delicious

Vegan Magic

That is fantastic!!! Thank you for the feedback:)

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