These spicy veggie burgers will knock your socks off! A mix of chickpeas and walnuts give these patties the perfect hearty texture, while a blend of kicky spices packs in the flavor.
A few years ago I tried Trader Joe's veggie chorizo, and I really liked the stuff. I'm not big on most fake meats, but it seemed I'd found a new exception. I'm thinking it was all of the spices that did it for me.
I did create my own veggie chorizo-based recipe for some stuffed zucchini, using the flavors in Trader Joe's chorizo as a guide. That was a few years ago, and I always meant to explore those flavors more. So finally I'm back with more vegan chorizo inspired deliciousness, in burger form!
For my stuffed zucchini I used lentils and walnuts as the base for my chorizo, and that was great, but I like chickpeas better for burgers. I rarely have canned lentils on hand, and cracking open a can of chickpeas and tossing them in the food processor just makes life so easy. So that's what I did.
The same basic blend of seasonings I used in my zucchini goes in here: paprika, ancho chile powder, cumin, thyme, some warming cloves and cinnamon, and of course, cayenne for kick.
Mix everything up in the food processor, shape into patties, and grill away.
I topped my chorizo burgers with some creamy cashew cheese with green olives in it. Does that seem weird? It's really not! The zippy, briny flavor of the green olives is actually an amazing complement to the spicy flavors in the burgers.
Tips for Making Delicious Chickpea Chorizo Burgers...
- Don't overdo it with the food processor! You want your mixture to have a bit of texture to it so your burgers don't end up mushy.
- Think you'll have leftovers? Mix up the burger base in the food processor, but only shape and cook as many patties as you need. Seal up the rest of the mix in a container, and refrigerate or freeze it for later.
- The green olive cheese is freezer friendly too!
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Chickpea Chorizo Burgers with Green Olive Cashew Cheese
These spicy veggie burgers will knock your socks off! A mix of chickpeas and walnuts give these patties the perfect hearty texture, while a blend of kicky spices packs in the flavor.
Ingredients
For the Green Olive Cashew Cheese
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup unflavored non-dairy milk
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup pimento-stuffed green olives
For the Chickpea Chorizo Burgers
- 1 (14 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- Salt to taste
- High heat cooking oil, such as canola
For Serving
- 6 burger buns
- Lettuce, tomato, and/or onions
Instructions
To Make the Green Olive Cashew Cheese
-
Place the cashews, milk, vinegar, garlic, and salt into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
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Add the olives to the food processor and blend for a couple seconds more, just until they are finely chopped and well incorporated into the mixture.
To Make the Chickpea Chorizo Burgers
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Place the chickpeas, walnuts, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, smoked paprika, sweet paprika, ancho chile powder, cumin, thyme, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper into the bowl of a food processor.
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Pulse until the ingredients are finely chopped and well blended, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
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Taste test the mixture and season with salt to taste. Adjust any other seasonings to your liking.
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Lightly oil the bottom of a large skillet and place it over medium heat.
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Shape the chickpea mixture into 6 patties. When the oil is hot, place them into the skillet. Work in batches if needed to avoid crowding the skillet.
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Cook the patties for about 5 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.
To Serve
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Stuff the patties into buns and top with green olive cheese, lettuce, tomato, and/or onion.
Alissa, what great timing! I was disappointed this afternoon shopping at Sprouts and finding that they didn't have frozen cauliflower (which I wanted for a recipe that simulates KFC fried chicken with panko bread crumbs and lots of spices) so I had to come up with something else for Saturday night where I had all the ingredients so I wouldn't have to make another grocery store trip (I actually do enjoy grocery shopping, but try not to go every day). This recipe sounds wonderful, so this will be Saturday dinner! (My husband is already planning on just snacking on any leftover green olive cheese.) Our new culinary toy, just getting it a couple days ago, is a grill pan. Do you think this will work on it? I'm not sure why it would need to be exactly a skillet...
Perfect! I think a grill pan would work just fine - please let me know! The leftover olive cheese is awesome for snacking! I was eating mine on toasted baguette slices. :) Enjoy!!
Fantastic! The burgers were excellent, but what I loved even more was the olive cheese spread. My husband has missed store-bought pimento cheese spread since giving up dairy, but he admits this is a wonderful (and healthier and kinder) replacement. I loved it and I don't even like eating olives, but in this cheese they were wonderful. I had ketchup and BBQ sauce at the table as I normally do for burgers but didn't even use any---great as is.
Your recipe mentioned 6 buns and 6 servings but the instructions said to make 4 patties. I assumed it was just a typo and made 6 burgers (freezing 4). 1/6 was plenty, with the cheese and the baked sweet potato fries and collard greens we also had.
The cast iron grill pan worked better than our old gas grill, even making grill marks on the patty!
Thanks so much.
Whoops! It was a mistake - I actually made these a couple of times, 4 GIANT patties the first time, and we were stuffed! So I scaled back to 6. :) I'm so glad you enjoyed them! I was never a big fan of green olives either, but somehow they just work with these spices! Thanks so much Ellen!
yum! the burgers sound really good, but i'm most intrigued by the cheese! i love green olives.
If you're into green olives you'll probably love it! :) Enjoy!!
Has anyone tried grilling these? Let me know how that went.
I haven't tried grilling these, but veggie burgers can be tricky, as they don't hold together very well. One trick that sometimes works is to prebake them for 20 minutes or so at around 400F to get them to set, then charring them briefly on the grill. Good luck!