Saturday, September 6, 2008

Veganomicon's Chickpea Cutlets




Now that I've settled in a little bit in my new home down south, I've had to start cooking more for myself. When I lived in NY, I cooked often enough--I made dinner at least 4-5 nights a week, but since I was tired from commuting and work, it was more likely than not to be a lazy girl dinner--taco night or veggie burgers with a plethora of vegetables as a side so that I could feel like I was being somewhat healthy. Since that would get boring 7 nights a week, which is how often I'll be cooking now that I'm a phd student, I am now cooking from my cookbooks more often. This recipe for chickpea cutlets from the newly published Veganomicon is spectacular. It was easy, came out well and tasted pretty awesome. Delightful! And now I'll have dinner for tonight, tomorrow and monday even :0) so I can still kind of have lazy girl dinner until Taco Tuesday comes.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs (I used panko bread crumbs because they were the only vegan breadcrumbs I could find)
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely grated
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon sage
oil for frying

Instructions:
Mash the chickpeas and olive oil until there are no whole chickpeas left. Add remaining ingredients and knead for about 3 minutes until gluten is stringy. Heat frying oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Divide the chickpea dough into 4 even sections. Knead each section in your hand then shape into a patty or cutlet, about 4" x 6" or so. Fry for about 6-7 minutes per side until golden brown, then drain/pat excess oil off. They say you can also bake these at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes which might be a bit healthier...I think when I reheat these tomorrow night I'll probably do it by baking them so they come out just as crispy as they were when I fried them. So good! I love this cookbook!