Spicy Chick Pea Burgers

I love burgers.  I remember spending a good year or two in L.A. trying out the top rated burger joints on yelp/citysearch/whatever it was.  Venturing out to these places and sampling their menus was always an adventure, some adventures much better than others.

When I started this year of flirting with vegetables, I was worried about what I could get to replace my burger cravings.  Little did I know how delicious veggie burgers can be.

This burger is made of chick peas and sweet potatoes - and it is good enough that my meat-and-potatoes type brother requests it when he comes home for a visit.  Plus with all the quinoa its just so pretty looking.

• 1 small sweet potato (baked)
• 1/4 cup dried red quinoa (you can use white if you want)
• 1/4 cup dried barley
• 15 ounce can chick peas, rinsed and draines
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings : Thinly sliced red bell pepper, red onion, greens, ketchup.  Or whatever you like on burgers.

To bake sweet potato you can stick it in the microwave for 6 minutes.  Remove from microwave and wrap in foil.  Set aside for ten minutes.  Unwrap and scoop out contents into a food processor.

Cook barley and quinoa according to directions on packaging - barley takes 3X the amount of time to cook generally.

Add chickpeas, spices, flour and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the food processor.  Add cooked quinoa and barley to the food processor.  Blend.

Form 4 patties using the mixture.  Cook over medium heat using the other tablespoon of olive oil.  It takes about 3-5 minutes each side to brown.

Serve with the suggested toppings or others that you like (cheese? pickles? mayonaise?).  These burgers are pretty flavorful on their own so they don't need a lot to finish them off.