Monday, 30 May

Cooking so much the past couple of weeks has been bringing up a lot of food nostalgia. Mostly all of the amazing things I used to eat when I was still living with my parents and my mom was cooking for me on the reg.

After making humus the other week I got thinking about these chickpea burgers my mom used to make. Hot off the pan, onto a bun and then loaded with French’s american mustard, I could put those things away. So I got the recipe from her last week and decided to make them today. It’s best to make them a bit before hand so they can chill in the fridge and firm up before being fried in oil…yummmm.

My mom tweaked the original recipe in two ways so that the patties are smoother with less chunks. She no doubt did this because I was a child who disliked lumps of any kind in my food. I didn’t want anything being snuck into my meals (such as onion, which I abhorred) without my knowledge.

So for these burgers you finely dice 1/4 of an onion, one large carrot and one stalk of celery. You then steam the veggies until they’re soft – tweak number 1. With the veggies are steaming, you can mash your two cups of chickpeas (approximately 2 cans).

steaming veggies

Once the veggies are soft you mix them into the mashed chickpeas. Then in a food processor or blender, blend them down to create a smooth mixture – tweak number two. Pour back into your bowl and then add (up to) 1/4 c of flour. This is done to bind the ingredients together. I ended up using the whole 1/4 c, but this can be played with.

I also threw some cumin, salt and pepper into the patties for a little extra flavour. Form four patties and place them on wax paper, cover and put them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook. This also helps them to firm up a bit. Fry them in a bit of oil and then serve.

I was too excited about eating and forgot to take a picture of the finished burger, but we ended up splitting a third one after. I like mine with an obscene amount of mustard and some hot sauce and mayo, Fraser ate his more like a traditional burger. There was also one casualty. One half of the third burger met a gruesome end after plummeting off my flipper to go splat on the floor.

frying in some oil

my second helping

R.I.P.

I also did our third round of peanut butter cookies. The craving just had not been satisfied. First batch was too sweet, second was too cakey, so for my third try, I went to the master and got my mom’s recipe (again). These don’t have a healthy spin to them like the other recipes did. Which is probably why they win. If you like peanut butter cookies, these are the best. I had a hard time not eating the batter just raw out of the bowl. I did do a number of tastes tests to ensure it was as delicious as I thought.

Ended up freezing 12 of them, we ate 5 and there’s four on the counter waiting to be eaten with a cup of coffee in the morning. YAY!

dense and chewy…perfect

Recipe for PB Cookies courtesy of Shirl:

Preheat oven to 375

Beat the following ingredients with a beater:

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of peanut butter (the unhealthy kind)

1/2 cup of softened butter

1 egg

Beat until fluffy and then stir in the following:

1 and 1/4 cups of flour 

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Roll into 1 and 1/4 inch balls and flatten crisscross with a fork.

bake 9 to 10 min until light brown

1 cookie equals 110 calories