Meri’s Chickpea + Squash Burgers

This recipe is my Mom’s reincarnation of a recipe that appeared in one of those liquor store magazines. It can be used to make burgers or you can roll them into little 1″ cocktail sized balls and use them as appetizers. They are very flavourful and great if you’ve got a vegetarian in the crowd (or a crowd of vegetarians). Last night we went over to see my Mom’s childhood friend Vicki and her family (Manolo, Jasmina and Justin). My Mom and Vicki have been friends since Grade 6 and hadn’t seen each other in 40 years. It was like they’d never been apart. Good friends are like that. Vicki has lived all over the world and her husband Manolo is from the Philipines so my plan is to extract his recipe for chicken and pork adobo…stay tuned. Vicki and Manolo’s daughter Jasmina made a wonderful vegetarian lasagne with gluten free noodles (my Mom is on a gluten free kick at present). The noodles were actually really good…I had visions of gluey icky but not at all so I will have to get her recipe as well.

Ingredients
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
2 celery stocks finely chopped
2 carrots peeled and grated
1 (540 ml) can of chickpeas rinsed and drained
3 large kale leaves stemmed and minced
1 cup grated butternut squash
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
3/4 c almond flour or ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Use a food processor to chop and grate the vegetables. You may have to do the kale by hand.
3. Sauté onions, garlic, 1 Tbsp sesame oil and 2 Tbsp of tamari over medium heat for 5 minutes or until onion is transparent.
4. Add celery and carrots and cook until just soft (about 8 minutes).
5. In the meantime, purée the chickpeas with the remaining sesame and tamari.
6. Transfer chickpeas and sautéed ingredients to a large bowl.
7. Stir in the finely chopped kale, squash, flax seed, almond flour (or ground almonds) and salt.  If the mixture is two wet add more almond flour.
8. Keeping hands moist form into 8 patties or 36 1″ cocktail balls.
9. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and back 30 minutes.
10. Flip burgers or turn balls and bake another 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.
11. Serve with favourite burger fixings or sauces.

In this case my Mom made a Mango Chutney Mayo (equal parts mango chutney and mayonnaise) or you can try a Sweet Thai Chili Mayo which is 2-3 Tbsp of Sweet Thai Chili sauce mixed wtih 3-4 Tbsp of mayonnaise.