Black Chickpea & Red Quinoa Burgers with Prunes
Who doesn’t love a good veggie burger? Not many I’m guessing. I’m a big fan, though I don’t make them as often as I should, or, maybe could. These black chickpea & red quinoa burgers with prunes are easy to make, hold together well and taste super scrumptious. Served with caramelised onions, tomatoes & chilli, they are truly hard to beat.
Black Chickpeas
Yes, black chickpeas are a thing. Backalong when we had a productive allotment, we used to grow them. Not that they were keen to give us enough to make a decent meal, but they were a bit of fun. A palmful of them looked like a tiny heap of coal fit for a Cornish Pisky’s grate. However, I’ve not come across tinned black chickpeas until I saw them on the Suma website. I had to order a couple of tins straight away along with some red quinoa, prunes, tamarin, wholemeal spelt flour and a few other items. I had a feeling they would make fantastic bean burgers and I wasn’t wrong.
Italians are a lot more adventurous than us when it comes to growing and eating fruit, vegetables and pulses. Black chickpeas have been used in their diet for many years and indeed these Suma black chickpeas or ceci neri are from Italy. The chickpeas are thin skinned, so make for a particularly creamy and interesting coloured hummus.
#BloggerProblems
Earlier this month, my mother came to stay in our new home. It was lovely to have her. She cleared a load of ivy from the garden (plenty of that still to do), cleaned the windows and cooked for me whilst I was at work. What a treat. I wanted to make something special for her whilst she was here, so I thought it was the perfect time to try out these black chickpea & red quinoa burgers with prunes. I duly made the burgers and a load of stir-fried cabbage to go with them – my mother was trying to keep off the bread. I set up the photo shoot, hoping to get it done quickly before the burgers went cold.
And the very first photo I tried to take failed. As it turned out, the motor in my lens had broken which meant I had to buy a new one. Of course I didn’t know this at the time, so much time was spent leafing through my camera manual and desperately pressing this and pressing that. The result was no photographs and some very cold burgers. Not quite the treat I’d intended. So I feel honour bound, for my mother’s sake, to make up for this technological epic fail with another attempt. She may have to feast her eyes electronically, however, as I don’t think I can persuade her to come in person again so soon.
Black Chickpea & Red Quinoa Burgers with Prunes
I have a thing about prunes at the moment – take a look at my last post, spiced prune chocolate pots with amaretto to find out why. The upshot was that when I decided I wanted to try black chickpeas to make some burgers, I knew prunes would have to be a component. To keep the burgers as dark as possible, I used red quinoa rather than white. I’ve never actually cooked red quinoa before. I’d heard it took longer to cook than the white variety I’m used to, but I didn’t actually find that to be the case.
I used my Optimum Nutri Force to blitz the mixture into burger handling conformity, but a hand blender or food processor would work just as well. For this recipe I kept some of the whole chickpeas and quinoa and stirred them in afterwards to add a bit of texture.
My black chickpea & red quinoa burgers with prunes turned out even better than I was hoping. They were easy to manipulate, tasted delicious and were full of protein, fibre, vitamins and more. The prunes helped to keep the colour dark, but also gave a subtle note of fruity sweetness which worked particularly well. I daresay their stickiness helped to hold things together too.
To accompany the black chickpea & red quinoa burgers, I made some caramelised onion, tomato & chilli relish which made a fantastic addition. Second time around, I also baked some wholemeal spelt burger buns served with salad leaves and avocado. A few air-fried rosemary chips wouldn’t have gone amiss, but actually they were filling enough all on their own.
Black Chickpea & Red Quinoa Burgers with Prunes – The Recipe
- 100 g red quinoa
- 8 dried & pitted prunes - chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion - finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large mushrooms - wiped and roughly chopped
- 400 g tin black chickpeas
- 50 g rolled oats
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp smoked sea salt or sea salt if you can't get any
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp tamari
- Cover the quinoa with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes then drain and rinse. Cover with fresh water (about 200ml) and add the prunes. Cover the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to steam for a further 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, fry the onions in 1 tbsp of olive oil over a lowish heat until starting to caramelise. Add the remaining olive oil, mushrooms and garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes or until the mushrooms look cooked. Stir occasionally.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a sieve or colander.
- Blitz all of the ingredients, except for ¼ of the chickpeas and ¼ of the quinoa in a blender or food processor until roughly mashed. I used my Optimum Nutri Force blender.
- Stir together with the remaining chickpeas and quinoa and form into 6 burgers using damp hands.
- Place on a lined baking tray and bake at 180℃ for 20 minutes. Alternatively, fry in a little olive oil for five minutes, turning them over and frying on the other side for another 5 minutes.
Serve in a burger bun with salad, avocado and caramelised onion, tomato & chilli relish.
These black chickpea & red quinoa burgers with prunes is my eleventh recipe for the Suma Blogger’s Network.
They also go to #CookBlogShare hosted this week by Everyday Healthy Recipes.
Other recipes for vegetarian burgers you might like
- Beetroot & millet burgers via Thinly Spread
- Broccoli, spinach & cheddar cheese burgers via Emily’s Recipes and Reviews
- Chocolate bean burgers via Tin and Thyme
- Lentil & mushroom burgers via Tinned Tomatoes
- Sweet potato & butter bean burgers via Munchies and Munchkins
- Spicy black turtle bean burgers via Fab Food 4 All
- Sweetcorn and chickpea veggie burgers via Sneaky Veg
Black Chickpea & Red Quinoa Burgers with Prunes. PIN IT.
Some of the ingredients for this recipe were provided by Suma. I was not expected to write a positive review and all opinions are, as always, my own. The post contains affiliate links. Buying through a link will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blythe and blogging.
Jacqueline Meldrum
29th November 2017 at 9:39 amI love a good veggie burger. Pinned, Stumbled and yummed this one. Gorgeous!
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 11:21 amThanks Jac. Good veggie burgers are ace. Just needed a few chips to really set them off 😉
Corina Blum
29th November 2017 at 10:04 amThese sound unusual but totally delicious! I’ll have to try and get my hands on some black chickpeas as I’d love to try them.
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 11:23 amWell you know how much I like unusual 😀 The Suma Italian black chickpeas should be available in health food shops, both on and offline.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
29th November 2017 at 10:28 amHealthy, filling and delicious..definitely my kind of burger, Choclette.
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 11:24 amThanks Angie. If you’re going to make a veggie burger, it had better be healthy, filling and delicious 😉
Camilla Hawkins
29th November 2017 at 10:34 amI almost prefer veggie burgers to conventional ones and yours sound lush with the added sweetness of dates in there. I had never heard of black chickpeas so thank you for educating me on those! Thank you for including my burger recipe.
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 3:26 pmHaha, almost but not quite Camilla? CT likes them too, but if there was a choice, he’d go for the meat one every time. But then he doesn’t get to eat much meat – cackles wickedly!
Mandy
29th November 2017 at 10:58 amThese sound delicious and they look like they’re the perfect burger shape. I’ll have to hunt out some black chickpeas and give them a try. Thanks for linking to my burgers x
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 3:27 pmThanks Mandy. I found the mixture really easy to shape – not something I always manage very well with veggie burgers.
Claire Jessiman
29th November 2017 at 12:57 pmI’ve never come across black chickpeas and I’d naver have thought to add prines to burgers but I can totall see how it would work. I’ve used apricot in burgers to add a similar sweetness.
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 3:24 pmAh yes, I can see apricots working well in burgers too. I think black chickpeas are a well kept secret that is just being slipped out now.
Kate | The Veg Space
29th November 2017 at 1:51 pmThese look fabulous Choclette – I have some red quinoa lingering in the cupboard but didn’t know you could get black chickpeas, how exotic! Can’t beat a good veggie burger – I’ll try these out soon.
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 3:23 pmBlack chickpeas taste really good. Do try and find some if you can. As for the red quinoa, I just love the colour.
Nico @ yumsome
29th November 2017 at 2:30 pmThese look and sound super-yummy, and are definitely now on my to-do list! Like you, I love burgers but rarely make them. Maybe that’s why I love them so much… because I don’t have them very often. In fact, I’ve had burgers three times this year; once on a visit to see my son, and twice in a restaurant in Cluj-Napoca. I think I’m due more burgers! Ha ha!
Have pinned and tweeted – too good not to share! xx
Choclette
29th November 2017 at 3:21 pmAw thanks Nico. My burger consumption has not been numerous this year either. They are so good and not at all difficult, I really should make them more often. A restaurant in Cluj-Napoca sounds very exiting and eating burgers with your son has got to be a treat worth having.
Monika Dabrowski
30th November 2017 at 8:26 amI got excited when I read the title of this recipe but when I discovered there are prunes in these burgers I got super excited! I am a little bit crazy about prunes. I also really like the smoky notes in these burgers, no doubt they are delicious. Thank you for bringing them to #CookBlogShare!
Choclette
30th November 2017 at 8:34 amGlad it’s not just me and prunes. I reckon they are a good addition to lots of savoury food. I forgot to mention the smoky notes, so thank you for noticing 🙂
Mari
30th November 2017 at 10:34 amI’m always in for a nice veggie burger 🙂 love how you thought of prunes! I love them but not many occasions to put them in such a nice use 🙂 thanks for the recipe, Choclette!
Choclette
11th December 2017 at 8:45 pmThank you Mari. I’m trying to eat more prunes, so I’m having to be a bit more creative with them.
johanna @ green gourmet giraffe
30th November 2017 at 11:04 amThese sound delicious – though the camera malfunction sounds frustrating enough to want to throw them out the window! Glad you got it fixed as your photos in this post are great – I love the photo of the black ingredients. I am thinking black tahini and prunes might pair well for some black baking! Am enjoying your prune cooking – I really love them but haven’t bought them much lately and you are making me long for them
Choclette
11th December 2017 at 8:47 pmYes, I quite liked the dark and moody blacks. Black tahini sounds like a lovely idea to pair with prunes. As for the camera, I very nearly gave up the whole blogging thing on the spot!
Alison's Allspice
30th November 2017 at 3:46 pmI love that you used prunes to add sweetness to the burger! I will have to look for black chickpeas, they sound like a fun way to switch things up!
Choclette
11th December 2017 at 8:49 pmYes, I thought the black chickpeas were fun too. But they also tasted better than the average chickpea.
Nadia
30th November 2017 at 5:57 pmI’ve never come across black chickpeas before! Would love to try them. These veggie burgers sound delicious Choclette 😀 and they’re really healthy too!
Choclette
11th December 2017 at 8:50 pmThanks Nadia. The black chickpeas seem a lot creamier than ordinary ones and they had a good flavour too.
Kat (The Baking Explorer)
30th November 2017 at 10:35 pmI’ve never thought of putting prunes in burgers, these sound yummy and so nice of you to make them for your mum!
Choclette
11th December 2017 at 8:51 pmThanks Kat. We both thought the prunes worked really well in the burgers. I shall be using them again 🙂
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist
1st December 2017 at 6:08 pmI hate when I get technical hitches in the middle of photos…. Either way, your burgers look and sound amazing. Love the twist with black chickpeas! x
Choclette
3rd December 2017 at 9:58 amThanks Kate. I was definitely in a grump about my camera and I ended up not having one for over two weeks.
Marina
4th December 2017 at 10:09 pmI was seriously just looking for a simple and healthy vegan burger recipe! So perfect, so delicious!!! 🙂
Choclette
5th December 2017 at 9:26 amWell this may not be the simplest vegan burger around, but it’s really very easy and definitely delicious.
Cathy @ Planet Veggie
13th December 2017 at 2:46 pmI’ve recently become an even bigger burger eater than I was previously but, same as you, don’t make them myself as often as I should. I love the sound of the black chickpeas though – they please my inner goth!
Choclette
15th December 2017 at 10:43 amHahaha, I’m not sure I have an inner goth, but there is something rather pleasing about black beans.
Manda
9th April 2018 at 12:41 pmThese look wonderful and prunes d’agen are a local speciality. Do you think they’d freeze? I can’t see me getting through six at a sitting but making smaller quantities is often too fiddly.
Choclette
9th April 2018 at 2:59 pmHi Manda. Local prunes sound wonderful. I know exactly what you mean about fiddly, so I generally try to do batch cooking. I’ve frozen these burgers once baked and they were fine when thawed and reheated.