Baked Chickpeas and Sweet Potato Patties

I do love my legumes so when I saw that one of my favourite bloggers, Susan (The Well-Seasoned Cook) is hosting the My Legume Love Affair event, I knew that I should join in.

I don’t have any fancy legume to showcase because my favourite one since moving to Sydney is the humble chickpea. Canned chickpeas, actually. They are versatile, nutritious, quick to use, easy to find and cheap. I always have a few cans handy in the pantry.

I originally intended to make falafel, but ended up making these patties because I wanted to use up the sweet potatoes that have been waiting to be used. I remembered seeing a recipe that used both sweet potatoes and chickpeas, so I thought why not? A bonus - these are baked and not fried.

Kitchen and Tasting notes:
- These were great warm, at room temperature and even cold.
- If you make smaller patties, they are great as finger food, or stuff them in pocket pita bread. Alternatively, make bigger patties and serve it between burger buns.
- I first had these with salad and dipped it in Thai sweet chilli sauce. I think they would be great with a sour cream or yogurt dip.
- I brought some to work for lunch two days later and had it cold in a sandwich. They were still moist and remained flavourful (maybe even a bit more robust since the flavours had time to mingle).

Other chickpea recipes from this blog:
Chickpea and Pink Peppercorn Cob
Chickpea and Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Chickpea and Spinach Curry

No chickpeas in this soup, but it is chock full of legumes and a perfect way to warm up (for those experiencing the northern hemisphere winter):
Easy Peasy Soup

Baked Chickpeas and Sweet Potato Patties
Adapted from Australian Good Taste, March 2007

500g orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, coarsely chopped
1 x 400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ - ½ cup chopped fresh coriander (or any of your fav herbs)
Spices: freshly toasted and ground coriander seeds, cumin powder, sweet paprika
1 bird's eye chilli, chopped finely
2 tbs plain flour
Olive oil spray
Sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Method:
1. Cook the sweet potato in a saucepan of boiling water until tender (about 10 minutes) and drain. Return to the pan. Mash until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and cool. If you are in a hurry, place in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool.
2. Sauté the onion and garlic in a little olive oil till onion is translucent and garlic fragrant.
2. Mash the chickpeas in a bowl.
3. Add the chickpeas, onion & garlic mixture, herbs, spices and flour to the sweet potato and combine. Season with salt. Divide the mixture into desired portions and shape each portion into a patty.
4. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place patties on the lined tray. Spray with olive oil spray. Bake in oven, turning once, for 30 minutes (depends on the size of your patties) or until golden.
5. Serve with salad and sweet chilli sauce.

Edit: I made another batch which had the addition of a generous teaspoon of tahini in the mixture. I then rolled the patties in some untoasted sesame seeds. If you do the latter, be careful when the patties are in the oven since the seeds might brown too quickly. Also, I like Susan's (Food Blogga) suggestion of serving the original patties with tahini sauce (a few recipes here, here and here).

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Have great weekend!

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