Mushroom and chick pea burgers (vegan)

One of us is the sort of cook who looks into the pantry or at ingredients in the fridge to combine them to discover new dishes. This leads to interesting new combinations. Interestingly enough these combinations, while new to us, have very rarely not been tried at least hundreds of times by others.

Some things that I recently wanted to combine were chickpeas and mushrooms. I had some other ingredients that I wanted to eat alongside it (pita, fresh spinach, yogurt). I wanted something a little more substantial than a cold sandwich. I decided to combine the first two ingredients into a burger and make a sandwich by inserting it into the pita with the spinach and adding yogurt as a dressing.

After having assembled this dish in my mind I started brainstorming on a recipe. I googled and not really surprisingly found lots of results for "chickpea mushroom burger". I read a few of them and began to tweak them in my own mind making a note to keep certain ingredients and crossing a few of them off. I assembled the recipe below and after a few tries have decided that it's good enough to share.

Mushroom and chick pea burgers (vegan)
2 cups cooked chick peas
2 8 oz package of mushrooms
Medium yellow onion
1 cup corn meal
Cumin or curry powder mix
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
And pita, spinach and yogurt

Prep:

1. Finely dice onion.

2. Chop mushrooms roughly. You'll want to leave bigger pieces for texture in the burger.

3. In separate bowl roughly mash chickpeas. I used a pastry blade but a fork would have been just as good.

Cook:

1. Saute onions for 3 minutes on medium in good olive oil.
2. Add chopped mushrooms and continue on medium for 5 minutes.
3. Combine mushrooms and onions with chick peas and season to taste.
4. Add 3/4 cup corn meal and mix thoroughly. Moisture is important but too much or too little will make the burger fall apart. If mixture is still wet, add remaining corn meal. Some will want to add egg here but we kept our vegan with great results.
5. Use 1/2 cup measuring cup and press mixture into cup squeezing out any excess liquid. It's important to have a firm burger here and I just couldn't get it consistent without using a mold.
6. Allow to sit at least 15 minutes.
7. To prepare, gently heat in medium pan with olive oil turning as little as possible and cooking 5 min per side.
8. Place in pita with fresh spinach to eat right away or cover for use within 3 days. We've used yogurt and nayonnaise-based dressings.

Makes 6-8 burgers. Serve with pretzels or fruit.