Dilled Chickpea Burger With Spicy Yogurt Sauce
No one will ever know these burgers are made of chickpeas, unless you tell them. Shallots, chickpeas, tahini, and spices are combined and sautéed to crisp perfection for one of the most satisfying veggie burgers we’ve tasted.
Here we’ve stuffed them into pita pockets and doused them with yogurt sauce, but they’re just as wonderful with ketchup and mustard, or raw onion and a little hummus and Israeli Salad (page 81). These are thinner patties that should be cooked until crisp. Handle them as little as possible, and let them cook well on the first side before flipping. yogurt sauce.
Serves 6
1 cup plain vegan yogurt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, well-drained and rinsed
1/3 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
1/2 cup shallots, minced
2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
About 1/4 cup vegetable oil, for oiling the pan
6 pita pockets or buns
To make the yogurt sauce, place all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir until blended thoroughly.
To make the burger, lightly mash half of the chickpeas in a medium bowl. Add the dill, shallots, bread crumbs, and lemon juice and mix well.
In a food processor, combine the remaining chickpeas, tahini, salt, pepper and cumin until smooth. Add to the mashed chickpeas, mix well, and form into six to eight patties.
Oil a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and cook the burgers until very crispy and dark golden on both sides, about 6 minutes. Don’t flip them too much! Drain on paper towels or brown paper bags on a wire rack.
Stuff the patties in pita pockets. Drizzle with yogurt sauce.
From Mayim’s Vegan Table: More Than 100 Great-Tasting and Healthy Recipes from My Family to Yours by Mayim Bialik with Dr. Jay Gordon. Reprinted courtesy of Da Capo Lifelong Books.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
