These BBQ Cheddar Chickpea Burgers are the first veggie burgers I’ve ever eaten and I can’t believe they’ve been missing from my life for so long. They are so good that even my chickpea-despising and veggie-hating Official Treat Taster went for a second bite. Okay, so the burger was covered in so much sauce and cheese that he probably couldn’t taste the veggies or chickpeas, but that is beyond the point. The point is: these burgers are fantastic and you need to make them for lunch right now.

The original recipe calls for a food processor, but if you don’t have one (like me) don’t worry – you can still make these burgers. Instead of putting all the ingredients into a food processor, place them all into a large bowl and use a hand-held blender to mix everything together. This is what I did and it worked brilliantly. If you don’t have a hand-held blender, you could always try mashing the chickpeas with a potato masher and mix everything together with a spoon.

These burgers freeze really well. In fact, I have several mini-burgers wrapped in plastic and stored in my freezer for when I’m in desperate need of a snack, but want something healthier than whatever dessert I have in my fridge. I just grab a burger, blast it in the microwave for 4 minutes and devour my almost-instant, nutritious and tasty snack.

BBQ Cheddar Chickpea Burgers

Makes 6 burgers

Recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients

½ finely chopped onion

½ cup finely chopped broccoli

½ cup grated carrot

450g chickpeas

1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese + more for topping

3 tablespoons BBQ sauce + more for topping

1 tablespoon honey

¼ cup whole-wheat flour

Pinch salt & pepper

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Recipe

1. Heat a small frying pan over a medium head and fry the onions in a little oil until softened. Remove from the heat and leave to one side.

2. Combine all the remaining ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and mix until completely combined. Remove from the bowl and form into 6 burgers.

3. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add a little oil and cook the burgers until they are golden brown and crispy on the outsides – about 3-4 minutes. Be very careful when flipping the burgers over – they fall apart so easily.

4. Serve on toasted buns with extra cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce.

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I love homemade burgers and I know there are thousands of recipes out there for fantastic homemade burgers, but no matter how long I searched, I could not find a recipe for pork burgers that really worked for me. Instead of throwing the towel in and calling it a day, I decided to come up with my own recipe!

My method of cooking is a little haphazard to say the least. I stand over the hob and throw in whatever feels right. My Official Treat Taster hates this method because he’s worried that if I produce something amazing I’ll never be able to recreate it. Unfortunately, he’s completely right because I once made a gorgeous Chinese pork dish but for the life of me I can’t remember what I put in it, so I’ve never attempted to make it again.

My New Year’s resolution was to begin writing down my recipes, but I find that it hinders the creative aspect so much and makes it less enjoyable, don’t you think? This recipe was one of my pretend-I’m-a-fancy-chef-who-knows-what-she’s-doing-and-just-throw-everything-in recipes that I actually remembered.

The recipe looks really simple but the flavours work so well together and the sweet apple chutney adds that perfect sweet and zingy taste to accompany the pork burgers perfectly. I served these on mini seeded baguettes but any kind of bread or roll will work well.

Pork & Apple Burgers with Apple & Sultana Chutney

Makes 2 burgers and a medium-sized jar of chutney

Ingredients

Burgers

200g pork mince
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic

1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated apple

1 egg

1tsp parsley

1tsp sage

1tsp thyme

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp onion powder

1tsp brown sugar

1tbsp wholegrain mustard

Pinch of salt and pepper

Chutney

Recipe Adapted from BBC Food’s Spiced Apple Chutney

500g apples, cored and diced

50g sultanas

150g sugar

200ml red wine vinegar

1tbsp coriander

1tbsp paprika

1tbsp mixed spice

1tsp sea salt

Recipe

Burgers
1. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Fry in over a medium heat until softened - about 10 minutes.

2. Combine the onions and garlic with all the other burger ingredients in a large bowl and mix together well.

3. Divide the mixture into 2 and shape into 2 burgers. In a lightly oiled frying pan over a medium heat, cook the burgers for about 10 minutes on either side. Remember – these are pork burgers, so we don’t want any pink in the middle!

Chutney
1. Pour all of the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. Stir regularly until all the sugar has dissolved.

2. Simmer for 1 hour – mixing frequently to avoid the chutney sticking to the pan – or until really thick.

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