Move over, beef burger! There's a new vegan burger in town, and it's made with chickpeas. If you're looking for a delicious and satisfying alternative to the traditional burger, look no further than this recipe. This chickpea burger vegan recipe is easy to make, healthy, and filling - plus, they're perfect for any occasion. Whether you're hosting a backyard barbecue or simply looking for a quick and easy dinner option, these burgers will surely hit the spot. So give them a try today!
During summertime and grilling season, sometimes it can be hard to find grill-friendly vegan recipes other than grilled veggies or impossible burgers!
Homemade veggie burgers can be made with different grains like black beans and beets, but we love chickpea burgers above all. Best of all, chickpeas are a great source of plant-based protein.
Making chickpea patties vegan and simply adding popular comfort food seasonings is the key to making a great vegan burger. They make a great main dish and go perfectly with a nice fresh salad.
These vegan chickpea burgers were inspired by our crispy falafels recipe on this site and pair well with this fresh tabbouleh salad.
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🧾 Ingredients
- Cooked or canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans): Chickpeas are the main ingredient and provide a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and a meaty texture to the burger patty.
- Ground cumin: Cumin adds a warm, earthy flavor to the burgers and enhances the other spices and ingredients.
- Green onions: add a fresh, slightly sweet, and pungent flavor to the dish, and provide a mild crunch.
- Fresh garlic: adds an intense, savory flavor to the dish and helps to enhance the other spices and ingredients.
- BBQ sauce: adds a tangy, slightly sweet flavor to the dish and helps to bind the ingredients together.
- Rolled oats: act as a binder in the burger patty and provide a slightly nutty flavor and chewy texture.
- Celery: adds a fresh, slightly bitter flavor and a crunchy texture to the burger patty.
- Coriander adds a bright, slightly citrusy flavor to the dish and complements the other spices.
- Smoked paprika adds a smoky, slightly sweet flavor to the dish and enhances the other spices and ingredients.
- Salt is used to season the dish and bring out the natural flavors of the other ingredients.
See the recipe card for quantities.
🔪 Instructions
Making these vegan chickpea patties is a breeze. Start by draining the chickpea liquid from the can.
Star by mashing the cooked chickpeas with a potato masher or a fork in a mixing bowl
Then finally, mince the garlic, and chop the green onions and celery.
Add all the chopped veggies, minced garlic, seasonings, and spices into the bowl with the chickpeas
Mix all the ingredients thoroughly with your hands or a food processor on a low speed
Form small balls with your hands, of about 4 ounces each, and form patties on the tray
Take the chickpea burgers to the freezer for a minimum of thirty minutes inside a freezer-safe plastic bag
♨️ Cooking methods
- Air-fryer - cook the chickpea patties for 7 minutes on each side at 400 º F (200 ºC)
- Pan-frying - preheat the frying pan or skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil, and grill each veggie on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
- Grill - the best option to make chickpea burgers tasty. Grill them in a preheated grill to 450 ºF. (230 ºC). Spray olive oil on each side before putting them on the grill, and cook each side for 5 minutes. If you do not have a grill with temperature control, simply set the grill on, and as soon as the temperature is moderately high, put the lightly oiled vegan chickpea burgers on the rack, turning them halfway after 5 minutes.
- Oven-baked - similar to the grill, preheat the oven to 450 ºF. (230 ºC). Spray a rimmed baking dish with oil, or keep it oil-free by putting them on a parchment-lined baking sheet with parchment paper. Turn them halfway after 5 minutes.
Oil the rack to prevent the burgers from sticking and cook for 5 minutes
Brush with a little olive oil, turn the patties, and cook for another 5 minutes
Put the vegan cheddar cheese slice on top
👨🏻🍳 Add-ins and favorite toppings
Pick your favorite toppings and assemble your veggie burger.
- Organic Vegan mayo - like Vegenaise Follow your heart (affiliate link)
- Yellow Mustard - like Heinz
- Organic ketchup - Portland's ketchup (affiliate link) is great!
- Vegan BBQ sauce - we like Sweet Baby Ray's (affiliate link)
- Organic sliced pickles - Woodstocks' pickles (affiliate link) are great
- Vegan cheddar cheese - we like Trader Joe's
- Avocado slices
- Sprouts
- Lettuce
- Red onion rings
- Sliced tomato
🍶 Substitutions
- Green onion - You can use white onion, yellow onion, or red onion instead of green onions.
- Celery - substitute for the same quantity of chopped fennel, radish, or jicama. Just don't skip it, as celery helps keep the burgers together and contributes to their texture.
- Bun - use gluten-free buns instead of whole wheat bread buns to make this gluten-free.
- BBQ sauce - we love to add Sweet Baby Ray's to our veggie burger recipes because it adds that smoky flavor that only a grill can add and makes them incredibly tasty... and it is vegan and gluten-free!; Instead, you can use buffalo sauce or even liquid smoke. You can also skip it and add it directly to your veggie burger.
- Rolled oats - can be replaced with oats, such as quick oats, steel-cut oats, all-purpose flour, almond flour, or chickpea flour.
- Gluten-free - this is already a gluten-free version. Just remember to use gluten-free oats and mind the choice of buns.
📖 Variations
This chickpea burger recipe is very versatile, so you can easily adjust it to your liking; some suggestions follow:
- Herby - add chopped fresh cilantro or fresh parsley into the vegan burgers mix. You can also make these chickpea fritters with Italian seasoning.
- Deluxe - add guacamole, red peppers hummus, our green creamy vegan sauce for everything, or caramelized onions.
- Spicy - add ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper into the patties' mix.
- Kid-friendly - add crushed potato chips.
🍽 Equipment
You could use a food processor to make these delicious vegan chickpea patties, but I find the mix loses its texture. We prefer simply using a potato masher (affiliate link) or even a fork, leaving some texture in our veggie burgers.
🥡 Storage
This veggie burger recipe works wonders for meal prep; we always purposefully make twice the quantity to freeze the uncooked patties in a freezer bag or an air-tight container and have an easy weeknight meal. Store for up to 2 months.
If you have leftover cooked patties, store them in the fridge and then have them pan-fried, adding a half tablespoon of water to rehydrate them.
💡 Top tip
Don't overcook the chickpea burgers; they will become crumbly! Remember that the chickpeas are already cooked, and the rest of the ingredients are safe-to-eat vegetables and seasonings, so there's no harm in undercooking the patties.
Just sear the outside for a couple of minutes, but they should still be soft inside for best results.
❓ FAQ
Yes, there are many vegan BBQ sauces on the market. Look for brands that do not contain honey or other animal products. You can also make your own vegan BBQ sauce by combining ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, and onion powder.
It can be. Vegan mayonnaise is typically made with healthy oils, like avocado oil or grapeseed oil, and it's low in sugar and salt. However, some vegan mayonnaises are made with processed ingredients, like soybean oil or canola oil, which are not as healthy as the other oils mentioned. So, when choosing a vegan mayo, read the ingredients list to ensure you're getting a healthy product.
🥪 More vegan sandwich recipes
- Vegan Egg salad sandwich made with protein-rich tofu and cauliflower.
- Vegan "Tuna" Sandwich is a delicious meal prepping option for lunch boxes.
- Treat your family to a delicious street food classic, a fantastic falafel wrap.
If you try our vegan chickpea burgers recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag a photo #ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!
📋 Recipe
Chickpea Burger Vegan Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 16 ounce chickpeas organic canned, drained (454 g). Lightly mashed, not pureed.
- 1 stalk celery finely chopped
- 3 pieces green onions small, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped or minced
- 4 tablespoons oats gluten-free organic rolled, or regular oats, chickpea flour
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin ground
- ½ teaspoon paprika smoked
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Optional
- 2 tablespoons vegan BBQ sauce
Directions
- Finely chop the green onions and celery, mince the garlic, add to a skillet, and stir-fry until just before they begin to brown, then remove from heat.
- Drain the can of chickpeas and add them to a medium bowl and coarsely mash with a potato masher or a fork.
- Add the cooked celery, green onions, and garlic. Then add the rolled oats, ground cumin, paprika, coriander powder, flour, and optional BBQ sauce; then fold it into a thick burger batter.
- Divide the mixture onto a tray into 3 even balls (4 ounces each) and place them on a tray with lined parchment paper.
- Adjust moisture. If the mixture is too sticky, add more rolled oats or chickpea flour so that it easily forms patties with your hands, then flatten them with the palm of your hands or use a piece of parchment paper, place on top of each patty, and press down to flatten it into a burger shape. Then even out the borders with your fingers.
- Place the baking tray with the burgers into the freezer, so they firm up for 30 minutes. (You can skip this step if you feel your patties are firm enough or in a hurry).
- Add some non-stick spray into the skillet and heat up until hot.
- Add the burgers to the skillet and 5 minutes on each side until they look browned and crispy.
Alternative method:
- Place the burgers on a parchment-lined baking tray and bake in the air fryer or the oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 20 minutes.
- Serve on your favorite hamburger buns with lettuce, tomato slices, vegan cheddar cheese, or sliced avocado. Add your choice of seasonings, such as ketchup, mustard, or vegan mayo.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Facts
🌡️ Food safety
We sometimes take for granted that we have years (or decades) of cooking experience that the average visitor may not. Add to or remove the list below with health and safety tips.
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat.
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with a high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
Katie Jacques says
This chickpea burger is the perfect vegan burger! Full of flavor and so incredibly easy to make!
Holly says
Very good burgers! These were easy to make and so much more flavorful than store-bought veggie patties.
kevin says
I'm not sure what I did wrong, I substituted finely the green onion with chopped white onion, and left out the celery because I didn't have any, other than that I did everything else as written. Neither myself or my Wife liked them.
Gus says
Hi Kevin, thanks for taking the time to do a review. Substituting green onion for white onions is OK. Leaving the celery out was the problem. Celery has a very particular texture, that helps consolidate the rest of the ingredients. That´s why it is often used on the egg, tuna, and chicken salads and their veganized versions. I recommend yous subbing with vegetables with similar textures as radishes, fennel, or even jicama.
Michelle Barnett says
I’ve missed a true veggie burger. It’s a completely different experience. I’m excited to try this. I love you both for all your vegan adventures!
Gus says
Hi Michelle! Thanks for your lovely message! I hope you enjoy this veggie burger! Let us know when you try it, and we hope to keep writing exciting content and recipes for you! 🙂
Gina Abernathy says
A delicious and satisfying chickpea burger.