Chickpea and Spinach Patties

You may notice that the plate isn't clean; I couldn't wait to eat these, so this is the second batch.

 

Falafel is delicious, relatively easy to make, and a good way to get people to eat beans. These patties are adjacent to falafel in that they're delicious, relatively easy to make, and a good way to get people to eat beans, but they differ in some aspects, including the need to deep-fry and the need to soak beans overnight. They also include some other ingredients besides chickpeas, so they're a complete meal instead of a thing you need to make sandwiches out of, though you absolutely can make sandwiches out of them.

The main reason I created this recipe is because soaking beans is a pain, and falafel really should only be made with soaked dry chickpeas. If you feel like preparing something in advance, by all means get yourself some dry chickpeas and make falafel. Come back here when you've got to prepare a meal in a relative hurry.

You Will Need:

• Beans
• Rice
• Spinach
• Eggs
• Breadcrumbs
  
• Oil
  
• Salt
• Spices

Beans

While traditionally falafel is made with chickpeas, this recipe doesn't require them. I would recommend sticking to white, neutral beans, but the first time I made these patties I accidentally added a can of Great Northern beans to the chickpeas and it came out great. You can use all chickpeas, a mix, or all white beans. It's up to you. Three cans, drained and dried (we'll discuss this further down).

Rice

This is where you might want to prep in advance. You'll need about a cup of cooked white rice. It can be basmati or just regular white rice of some kind. I used some leftover Chinese take-out rice I happened to have.

If you don't have leftover rice, don't panic. You can make this without it; you'll just need to add more breadcrumbs. In fact, if you have regular white bread, rather than using dried breadcrumbs to substitute, you can chop up the bread into crumbs (the food processor makes this easy, but you can use a knife and it's not difficult) which, like leftover rice, will retain some moisture. This will give you a nice tender interior, while the dry breadcrumbs give a crispy exterior. Use both. No one will stop you.

That said, you can also make yourself a cup of rice, it'll just take you a bit longer to prepare. A half cup of uncooked white rice, boiled like pasta takes about 15 minutes to prepare and makes about a cup of cooked rice. Drain it using a wire strainer and then spread it out on a pan or platter to cool down until you can handle it. It doesn't need to be ice cold. You may find that you need a few more breadcrumbs to balance the moisture, but this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

Spinach

1 pound. Use frozen chopped spinach and you can just defrost it in the microwave, or if you insist on using fresh, sauté it until it wilts. If you're sautéing, you might as well sauté some onion and garlic with it, but seriously, just use frozen chopped. Once it's defrosted (microwave for 5 minutes and then let it sit until it's cool enough to handle), squeeze out as much of the water as you can, and you'll be left with approximately 2 cups of compacted spinach. 

Eggs

2 eggs. Any size, really. I'm not at all sure that there's a huge difference between the sizes unless you're baking; at least, I've never found it to be the case. But I used Jumbo because it's fun to say. Jumbo eggs. Sometimes you get lucky and get a double yolker. I'm only saying all this because there's really nothing more to say about the eggs other than that you need two of them.

Breadcrumbs

You'll need about a cup. This is the ingredient to adjust the consistency of the patties; if they're too sticky and don't hold their shape, add more breadcrumbs. I used panko because I had them, but any dry breadcrumb that hasn't been seasoned (or hell, chuck in the seasoned ones if they seem like a good flavor to go with this) will do. You need them to make things crispy later.

You can make your own from toast. Toast your bread until it breaks when you bend it, without burning it of course, and then just smash it in a bag with the bottom of a pot or a rolling pin or something until you have coarse breadcrumbs. Don't worry too much about how fine they are; you want some texture. Make extra; they keep in an airtight container for a while.

Oil

I drizzled a little olive oil into the mixture because I was planning on these being a meal and wanted a little healthy fat. You can fry in olive oil too, though if you use extra virgin it might scorch, so either fry longer and lower or use an oil with a higher smoke point. You won't be deep-frying but shallow-frying still needs a decent amount of oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan. I'd figure on needing 1/2 cup of oil overall to fry all the patties, but you can certainly cut back on that. You could even fry these using nothing but cooking spray, or bake them in the oven. They just won't be quite as fry-crisp.

Salt

Yes, you will need salt. Enough said.

Spices

I use whole coriander seed to give pops of coriander flavor, plus garlic, cumin, and cinnamon. I also used some fenugreek powder and garam masala, but I didn't really taste those in the final dish, so to be traditional, whole and ground coriander seed, garlic, cumin, and cinnamon. Coriander is the most dominant flavor, so go heavier there, and go light with the cinnamon. Garlic powder is fine, or garlic paste (though it adds moisture to the mix) or even crushed garlic cloves. 

The garam masala isn't a bad background flavor; you won't get much of it in the final dish but it gives a base for the coriander to build from. Cumin will do this too, just be careful that it doesn't overpower the coriander.

You can also add spicy flavors here like red pepper flakes or cayenne, but I made a spicy sauce to go with them so I held off on the spice except for some black pepper because I'd probably add black pepper to desserts if I didn't stop myself. Just a little kick, that's all.

You Will Also Need

A Bowl

Use a bigger bowl than you think you'll need. It's always better to err on the side of too big.

A Frying Pan

Nonstick is fine here, even though you're going to use some oil.

A Sheet Pan?

If you're going to dry your beans out a little, you'll need this. Just a regular sheet pan, with sides so the beans don't roll off.

Let's Make Patties!

To start, drain and rinse your beans. Chickpeas don't usually require that much rinsing, whereas other beans will. Once you've drained off as much water as you can, you can just spread your beans out on the sheet pan and let them sit, or you can speed up the process in a very low oven. Set the oven to the lowest temperature you can, then when it's preheated (which always takes longer than it seems like it should, even at this low) stick the pan with the beans in there and let them warm up. Shake them around every few minutes until they no longer look wet. That's the key; you don't want to actually dry out the insides, but you do want to make sure there's no extra water on the outside. This should take 10 minutes or so, depending on how hot your oven is. If you've got a convection oven, definitely use it; the fan will speed things up.

Pull out the beans while you prep your spinach, either sautéing or microwaving, then squeezing out the moisture.

Now, add your beans to the bowl. Using a potato masher, a spoon, a fork, or even your fingers, lightly mash the beans. What do I mean by "lightly" you ask? Well, you want texture. You want some beans to remain pretty much whole, and some to be mashed. You can add half the beans and really go to town on them until they're mostly paste, then add the other half and just smoosh them a little. The paste will help with structure, the bigger pieces with texture.

Add the spinach, drained, and the rice. Now is a fine time to add the salt and spices too. Stir everything around, break up clumps of spinach and rice, smash the occasional whole bean, and just get everything introduced to each other.

You can break your eggs into a separate small bowl and lightly scramble them, and the Code of the Kitchen requires me to pass on, like it's useful information, that doing this will make sure you don't add a bad egg or get shell into the final dish. Me, I just cracked them right in because I'm a rebel, but the Code of the Kitchen cannot be violated, so for the sake of my kneecaps please proceed at your own risk. Add the eggs that you've safely beaten in a separate bowl and mix everything together.

At this point you should have a mix that is too wet. It won't hold together, it's sticky, it's a mess. Good. That's what you want. Add your breadcrumbs. Start with half a cup, then keep adding until you can form patties that hold together. Then stop. Don't make them too dry or they'll crumble and fall apart. Even if you somehow managed to extract all the moisture out of your ingredients and used quail eggs (don't do this please) and you only needed two tablespoons of breadcrumbs, don't give in to the temptation to add more. But also don't be scared; a little over or under won't matter.

Put your mix in the fridge for at least ten minutes while you heat the oil up. Let it rest. Let the moisture redistribute into the breadcrumbs, the beans, and the rice. It's like resting dough.

Heat your oil up to the smoke point. Yes, you want nice and hot oil. Enough to cover the bottom of your pan. Unless you're using less, or spray, in which case heat the pan up until when you sprinkle a little water in it sizzles. Nice and hot for good browning.

This recipe should make about 12 burger-sized patties. I say "about 12" because unless you make them all in advance and spend a fair amount of time getting them even, 11-13 is a much more likely range. Who cares? I wound up with 11 the first time.

Grab a glob of the mix that fits into your palm and form it into a patty about the size of a hockey puck. Be firm. This isn't like a burger where you don't want to get too tough; the more you compress it, the better it'll stay together. If you've got a burger former, by all means use that.

You can make the patties smaller and thinner and you'll wind up with a much more falafel-like experience, or make them thicker and you can serve these as veggie burgers. It's up to you. I like the crisp outside but found that anything thinner than 3/4 inch was too delicate to flip. They're not falafel. It's okay. They'll still get crispy.

Fry as many patties as you can fit, usually 4 at a time. Stage the patties that are done on a plate in your oven to keep them warm and dry.

Serve with whatever sauce you like. I made a creamy yogurt-harissa sauce, but tzatziki, tomato sauce, tahini, or even on a salad with Greek dressing and feta, are all good options. You can also, as I said, serve these on buns as veggie burgers, though they do fall apart a little.

And that's all there is to it. Except...

In Lieu of Variations, a Sauce Recipe

Harissa is a wonderful Middle-Eastern chili paste, which I confess I don't have, so I used Sriracha instead, but this creamy dip/sauce goes well with all sorts of things, not just falafel-esque patties.

You Will Need:

• Yogurt
• Water
• Sugar
• Salt
• Ketchup
• Harissa?
• Vinegar
• Spices

Yogurt

I used Greek, and had to add water to thin it out a little. Even if you use regular yogurt you may find yourself needing to thin things down. Any fat level is fine. If you use Greek, the yogurt flavor is more concentrated and you may need more sugar. How much, you ask? How much sauce do you want?

Water

Enough to make a sauce that's the consistency of salad dressing. It should cling to the back of a spoon but not be so think that you have to shake it off the spoon. You may not need any. Ze mileage, she may vary pour vous.

Sugar

This is a sweet and sour and spicy sauce. Sugar to taste

Salt

To taste as well.

Ketchup

Just a squirt. This is not ketchup-forward, but it gives a nice complexity to the sauce.

Harissa

If you've got it, go for it, to taste. If, like me, you are shamefully unable to secure harissa in your household, sriracha makes a fine substitute. Twice as much as the ketchup for a decently spicy but not overpowering sauce.

Vinegar

You can leave this out, but I liked the brightness a little white wine vinegar brought. Just a splash.

Spices

Garlic, yes. Ras al hanout? Sure, why not. Dill? Oh this would be great with a little dill. In fact, you could leave out most of the hot sauce and add a bunch of dill and a little lemon juice and this would go great with some fish. This isn't the variations section. Stop tempting me. Anyway, I used garlic and a little coriander powder, but you should play around with it.

Getting Saucy

Mix thoroughly in a small bowl. Adjust consistency with water until you can drizzle it over patties, salad, turkey sandwiches, lavash, gyro, carrots, or your own left foot. Friends, this sauce is good on everything. And so easy to make.

There now, you've got a bean burger recipe in your back pocket and they'll never know they're actually eating something that's dangerously close to falafel. You've got this. This is cookable.