Chickpea Patties with homemade cooked chickpeas

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade cooked chickpeas ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water.

   Bowl

   💡Soak in plenty of water, well above what's being soaked: legumes and grains swell and drink water, and whatever sticks out stays hard. Drain well before continuing.
2. 2
   Drain, cover with plenty of unsalted water and cook 1.5–2 hours, skimming off the foam and skins from time to time, until the chickpeas are very soft and crush easily between your fingers.

   ColanderStovePot

   💡Fully cooked chickpeas crush between your fingers with no resistance at all. Chickpeas that stay a little firm make a grainy spread, and no amount of tahini will fix it.
3. 3
   Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid.

   Colander

For the Meatball mix

1. 4
   Drain and rinse the chickpeas.

   Colander
2. 5
   Grind the chickpeas with the onion, garlic, cilantro and parsley in a food processor to a coarse mixture.

   Food processor

   💡In a food processor, grind in short pulses and check between pulses: it's easy to go from coarse to paste. (Sesame for tahini, on the other hand, is ground continuously.)
3. 6
   Add the flour, baking powder, cumin, paprika, salt and black pepper to the ground mixture and mix well.
4. 7
   Chill the mixture 30 minutes.

   Refrigerator
5. 8
   Shape the mixture into flat palm-size rounds.

   💡Wet hands don't stick to the mixture, and the patties come out smooth and even.

To assemble

1. 9
   Heat the pan over medium heat and drizzle the olive oil over it.

   StoveFrying pan

   💡What you brown (meat, patties, schnitzel) goes into hot oil: in lukewarm oil it soaks it up and comes out greasy. For onion and garlic that you soften, oil heated over medium or low heat is enough; do not wait for it to smoke.
2. 10
   Fry the meatballs about 4 minutes per side, until they brown.

   Stove

   💡Don't press the patties with a spatula or flip them more than once: the juices run out and the patty dries out or falls apart. It releases from the pan once the underside is browned.
3. 11
   Serve with tahini, vegetables and salad.