I’ve been trying to eat a few more vegetarian meals, mostly out of wanting to cut down on our animal protein intake, but not giving it up entirely.  A friend mentioned falafel and it was like a light bulb went off in my head.  But I’d just cooked all the chickpeas I’d soaked, supposedly falafel is made with raw chickpeas, so I had to rethink what I was going to make.  With the dukkah recipe it gave me an idea for another spice combination and I saw some recipes for vegetarian burgers and fritters using beans.  So my chickpea fritter was borne of these.

2 ½ cups cooked chickpeas

1 tsp olive oil

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2-3 garlic cloves

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbsp olive oil for frying

Toast the seeds over medium high heat for a couple of minutes.  Throw all ingredients except egg into food processor and blend together until pasty.  Add egg and mix for another minute.  Form into patty shapes and pan fry in olive oil over medium high heat for a few minutes, flip and cook other side.  Turn heat down if it gets too brown.  Make sure they’ve cooked through then drain on paper towel. 

Serve alone or with plain yogurt, mint and lemon juice. 

I have a good friend who is vegetarian and I was so happy to share one of my new recipes with her— because I finally could!  But it wasn’t she who was as enamored of it as her meat-loving son.  He couldn’t get enough AND he’d just had dinner.  Woo-hoo!

My two eldest loved them too, but I couldn’t convince my youngest to try even a bite.  Next time, maybe.