Southwest-Inspired Spicy Chickpea Burgers (Vegan)
Spicy chickpea burgers full of delicious and healthy ingredients make it easy to go meatless.
While I am not a vegetarian or vegan or really anything when it comes to my diet, I do enjoy a good meatless meal quite often. I love these spicy chickpea burgers! They are full of tasty, spicy flavors like diced green chiles, chipotle in adobo and cumin. And they also feature healthy veggies like zucchini, corn, onion and parsley. Let’s make them!
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Ingredients
Spicy Chickpea Burgers (Vegan)
I kept it as simple as possible while still including a lot of flavor in these plant-based burgers!
- Canned chickpeas: while using canned chickpeas doesn’t get you as close to a meat-like texture as dried chickpeas will, they are much easier to work with and still give you a delicious chickpea burger for a quick and healthy meal.
- Garlic
- Diced green chiles: I love diced green chiles. I use them in so many dishes and they are super cheap too. I always grab a can when I’m at the grocery store so I always have them on hand.
- Chipotle peppers in adobo: for this recipe, we only need 1 pepper, which means you will have a lot of remaining chipotle peppers to try other delicious recipes like my chipotle slow cooker chicken. (That is if you are also a meat-eater like me)
- Onion: I used yellow, but white or red will work fine too.
- Fresh parsley
- Zucchini
- Corn
- Oat flour: Brown rice flour will work too
- Spices: cumin, salt, pepper
Making Spicy Chickpea Burgers (Vegan)
Equipment
I used my Blendtec blender to make these chickpea burgers, but you could also use a food processor to blend everything up.
Step one: blend and mix the ingredients
You will need to blend everything except the shredded zucchini, corn, onions and a small amount of reserved whole chickpeas (we will mix those in by hand to give the burgers some texture).
Step two: shape the spicy chickpea burger patties
Once you have everything blended and mixed, shape your chickpea burger patties by hand. I used about 1/2 cup of the mixture per burger. And be sure not to make them thicker than 1/2 inch so they can cook through and not be too creamy in the center.
Step 3: cook the chickpea patties in a skillet
Shape all of your burgers (it should yield about 8), then heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan and then cook burgers for about 4 minutes per side, until golden and crispy on the outside.
Freezing & Reheating Vegan Chickpea Burger Patties
Freezing Chickpea Patties
These will freeze and reheat beautifully. Unless you plan to eat one again the following day I recommend just freezing all of the leftovers. To freeze, place the burger patties on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then put the chickpea burgers in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or a Ziploc bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Reheating Chickpea Patties
To reheat the burger patties from frozen: preheat the oven to 375F and place burgers on a parchment-lined or non-stick baking sheet and cook for about 25 minutes.
To reheat from the fridge: I recommend either still reheating in your 375F oven for 15-20 minutes or you can place a patty in a non-stick pan with a little cooking spray and cook for 3-4 minutes per side. Just keep the heat at medium to medium-low to avoid over browning.
Can you microwave these Spicy Chickpea Burgers?
While you of course can, it doesn’t mean you should 🙂
They will still maintain their great flavor when cooked in the microwave, but you will lose the crispness on the outside which is one of my favorite parts.
What to eat with Spicy Chickpea Burgers
I kept it simple with these burgers:
- gluten-free burger bun from Trader Joe’s
- chipotle mayo
- lettuce
- tomato
That’s really all you need, but if I could’ve included one addition it would’ve been marinated onion (I have a recipe for marinated onions in this post).
But my actual favorite way to eat these chickpea burgers is over rice with some sautéed veggies and usually still a little dollop of chipotle mayo. This delicious chipotle southwest sauce also goes well with these burgers.
You can also enjoy these over a salad! Don’t limit yourself to burger buns!
More meatless recipes
Tried this recipe?
If you’ve tried making these spicy chickpea burgers, let me know by leaving a comment/rating below! You can also find me on instagram @thefigjar.
PrintSouthwest-Inspired Spicy Chickpea Burgers
These chickpea burgers are full of flavor and come together quickly. Perfect for busy weeknight meals!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 Burgers 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: American, Mexican
Ingredients
- 2 15 oz canned chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
- 2 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 3 tbsp canned diced green chiles
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup yellow onion (chopped small)
- 3/4 cup zucchini (grated)
- 1/2 cup corn
- 2/3 cup oat flour
- oil for cooking the patties (Olive, avocado or canola)
Instructions
- Reserve 1/3 cup of chickpeas, then in a food processor or blender combine: remaining chickpeas, garlic, parsley, diced green chiles, chipotle pepper, salt, pepper and cumin.
- Blend until smooth. Then add reserved chickpeas, onion, zucchini, corn and oat flour. Stir well with a rubber spatula until fully combined.
- Use your hands to form patties (about 1/2 cup of the mixture for each patty). Don't make the burgers more than 1/2 inch thick. You should end up with about 8 burgers.
- Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan evenly.
- Add burger patties to the pan, cooking about 4 minutes per side, until golden brown and crispy on the outside. You might need to do this in two batches. As the burgers are done, place on a paper-towel lined plate or cooling rack until ready to serve.
Freezing instructions
- Place burgers on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about one hour. Then place in a freezer safe container or ziploc bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Reheating instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Place burgers on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cook for about 15-20 minutes.
Looks amazing! Just wondering how you cooked the burger Tikki. Couldn’t locate it in the steps. When you say burgers, do you mean the chickpea Tikki? Thanks
I’m not sure what you mean by “Tikki”. The burgers are made out of canned chickpeas. Once the patties are formed, I cooked in a skillet with oil. I hope that helps.