Chickpea and Prawn Burger

When we were younger, McDonalds used to serve this vegetarian burger. I am not sure how many of you in Malaysia remember this but the burger was known as the “Vege” Burger. If I remember correctly, that burger was priced at RM 2.50 per burger. It was on the board from only a short period of time, between the year 2001-2003.

Needless to say, when they introduced that burger, it instantly became my favourite burger at McDonalds. As I was only in secondary school at the time, the price was also much more affordable as compared to the other burgers, my allowance allowed me to have this burger once every 2 months. The patty tasted a like a mix of potato and chickpea with a bit of spicy herbs, like cumin and coriander and a little bit of corn bits.

What do you know? When I met Joanna a few years later and we were talking about our childhood and the things we enjoyed having, this burger came into the discussion. Jo too remembered the burger as it was also her most loved burger at McDonalds at that time.

For many years, we have been talking about that burger and at times, wishing that McDonalds would bring it back some how, until one day, out of the blue, I told Joanna, why not we try making that burger at home. With our own twist. Just get some chickpeas and we can try it at home. Hence, I came out with this Chickpea and Prawn burger.

Please do note that, this patty that we are about to share is not the same as the Vege Burger at McDonalds many years back. In fact, it contains prawns, hence it is not a Vege burger at all. But it is a patty made from our experiences as kids, something nostalgic, fusing it together with something we also enjoy now as adults, prawns. Haha.

Here is a breakdown of the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 can of Chickpeas (410g)

2 tablespoon of Cumin

2 tablespoon of Coriander

5 cloves of Garlic

4 large Prawns (removed from shell)

1 Egg

2 tablespoon of all purpose flour

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Smoked Paprika Powder

BBQ Powder (Optional)

First, remove all the prawns from its shells. Cut/dice them into small half pea-sized bits. Marinate the prawns with a little salt and pepper, smoked paprika powder and with a pinch of BBQ powder.

Coarsely dice the garlic cloves and place aside for mixing later. Place 2 tablespoons of Cumin seeds and Coriander, together with some salt and pepper in the food processor and mix them well with 1-2 short pulse on the food processor. If you like a finer/smooth bite to the patty, you can lightly heat the cumin seed and coriander seeds in a pan and breaking them with a pester and mortar before mixing.

Drain the can of chickpeas to remove all the water. For this recipe, we used the Cirio’s canned chickpeas. Put half on the chickpeas into the food processor containing the cumin and coriander mixing and pulse it several times until the chickpeas are coarsely broken down. Remove this chickpea mix into a large bowl. Place the remaining chickpeas into the food processor and pulse the food processor just a short while to ensure the chickpeas are only coarsely broken down. Remove from the food processor and into the earlier chickpea mix.

Add more salt and pepper to taste and enough smoked paprika powder until the mixture is a red in colour. As mentioned, you can add a few pinches of BBQ powder to the mix as well, but if you do that, do remember to cut back a little on the salt, otherwise it might turn out to be overly salty. Mix the diced prawns into the patty mix. Break the whole egg into the mixture together with 2 tablespoon of multipurpose flour. Mix well. This chickpea and prawn mix should be sufficient to make 3 regular sized patties or 4 smaller patties.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and bring the heat up to a medium. Once the oil is heated, scoop enough chickpea/prawn mix onto the pan and flatten it out into patty. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Because we prepared this out of randomness, we did not have any burger buns at home. We served our patties with some cheese, preserved chilies and large toasted breadcrumbs.

Do try this out and let us know what you think. Enjoy.