Chickpea and Grilled Pepper Burger with Dill Dunked Cucumber Salad

From a brand new summer vegetarian cookbook, Green Burgers, comes this fabulously refreshing burger. A great balance of flavors: smoky filling (two types of chile powders infused into chickpeas), an acidic and herby topping (cucumber salad), and succulent, rich oven-baked onions.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 red bell peppers
• olive oil for drizzling
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper
• 7 oz oven baked onions ( recipe below)
• 3 Cups cooked chick peas
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder New Mexico
• 1 Cup Panko bread crumbs
• peanut oil for frying
• cucumber salad (recipe below)
• 6 Burger Buns
• butter

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat Broiler to 475 degrees
2. Halve red peppers remove core and seeds. Put pepper halves on a baking tray with skins facing up, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. 
3. Broil until skins are black. Remove peppers from heat. Transfer to a plastic bag.
4. Let peppers cool in bag. Then rub or peel off skin and roughly chop.
5. Make oven roasted onions (see recipe below)
6. Rinse chickpeas in cold water, drain well.
7. Peel and finely chop garlic.
8. Crack eggs into a food processor, lightly pulse. Add oven baked onions, chick peas, red peppers, paprika, chile powder, bread crumbs, garlic, and salt. Pulse until combined, but not too finely blended.
9. Separate mixture into 6 equal portions, form into patties. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This helps to keep its form while frying.
10. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
11. Make cucumber salad (see recipe below).
12. Heat skillet on medium heat. Add peanut oil to pan. Fry patties until golden brown on both sides. Remove patties from pan and place on a baking sheet.
13. Bake patties for 5-10 minutes.
14. Butter burger buns and toast in pan until golden brown. Place patty on bottom bun, then top with cucumber salad and a few dill heads.

Oven Baked Onions

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 onions
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• olive oil, for drizzling
• salt and pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Peel onions and cut into 1/4's. Spread out evenly on a baking sheet.
3. Add butter. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Bake onions on middle rack for 20-30 minutes or until they a light brown- a little burnt.
5. Remove from oven and let cool.

Cucumber Salad:

• 1 bunch of fresh dill, plus a few dill heads
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 lemon, zested
• white sesame seeds
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Shave cucumber length wise using a vegetable peeler. Remove a few dill springs from bunch, gently remove dill from stem with fingertips.
2. Put cucumber slices in a bowl, add dill, lemon zest, sesame seeds and dill heads to cucumbers.
3. Drizzle mixture with olive oil, salt and pepper, then gently toss with fingers.

Recipe from Green Burgers by Martin Nordin