These quick, healthy chickpea cakes are so easy to make. They’re delicious served with a light salad and a little yogurt or garlic mayonnaise. Plus, they’re low cost too!
Quick, healthy chickpea cakes are basically chickpea patties that are really simple to make.
Plus, as they’re vegetarian, they’re perfect if you’ve started off 2018 with the goal of eating less meat. In fact, if you’ve started off 2018 with the goal of eating healthier, lower calorie meals you have come to the right place!
The thing is so many people think that eating healthier also means you have to spend more money buying fresh fruits and vegetables all the time, and ages preparing things in the kitchen.
Not so! These tasty chickpea cakes are made from a tin of chickpeas, an onion, breadcrumbs and some basic store cupboard spices. That’s certainly not going to break the bank. Even the light salad I suggest, you should hopefully be able to purchase for just a couple of pounds.
You can expect to see lots more of these kinds of quick healthy budget recipes here in 2018.
Why? Well, if you check out my How To Plan And Succeed At Your 2018 Goals post from 1st January I gave details there of my goals and plans for this year. No.6 has the specific details of why recipes like this are the way forward currently.
Let’s face it folks, we’re all feeling that our money isn’t going quite as far as it used to aren’t we? I don’t do politics here but the facts are that rail fares in the U.K. just increased by 3.4% last week and that’s more than inflation or many pay rises (if you’ve been lucky to get one over the last few years) have been as an average! That’s just ONE example of everything going up in price!
You know cooking from scratch and meal planning has been crucial to helping both Lady Lynne and I save money, go on amazing holidays together and keeping those 7 stones off that between us we both shed when we started following the 80/20 rule for eating.
There’s plenty of ways to save money, it’s just not that many people I know choose to do that through cooking. No, they just choose to moan about the cost of things going up and don’t do anything about it!
If only most people did cook, not only would they find more pennies in their pockets but they’d get an enormous amount of satisfaction cooking for themselves / their partners / their family.
Anyway, thank you for listening. I realise you’re here reading this because you do want to cook for yourself to reap those benefits I mention above. So, without further delay I shall now climb off my soapbox and get on with how to make these quick healthy chickpea cakes….. 😉
How To Make These Quick Healthy Chickpea Cakes
For this super easy recipe everything (except the olive oil) goes into a blender and is blended to a consistency that’s easy enough to scoop out of the blender and make into patties using your hands without the mixture being too wet.
If you find that the mixture is too wet then mix in some more breadcrumbs to make it more firm.
Just 20 minutes in the fridge for the patties should be enough to bind them together before they are lightly fried allowing time for you to quickly prepare the light salad and garlic mayonnaise, if you choose that to accompany.
One tablespoon of olive oil per two chickpea cakes should be enough for you to lightly fry them on each side before serving.
All in all this tasty quick healthy meal should be on your table ready to be devoured in just over 30 minutes!
- 1 x 410g can chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 40 g wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 egg whisked
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Place all of the above ingredients, except the olive oil into a blender and blend until combined. Scrape down the sides of the blender to make sure.
- Scoop out the mixture and form 4 patties, place onto a lightly floured plate, cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to help them bind.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan on a high heat and when it's hot fry 2 cakes until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Repeat with the other two cakes.
Suggested serving with a salad of mixed lettuce leaves, cucumber, sliced cherry tomatoes and sliced red onion.
As always folks, I love to hear what you think of my recipes by your leaving comments below, thank you!
Join me on Thursday for the first new soup recipe of 2018, Easy Moroccan Chicken Soup. I recreated it after first tasting it as a shop bought one. I just know you’re going to love it! Catch you then. 😉
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David @ Spiced
Prices seem to just keep going up over here, too, Neil. I particularly notice it with utilities like cable/internet and the trash service…don’t even get me started on that topic! But you’re right that prices keep going up at the store, too. I’m loving these chickpea cakes as a tasty and inexpensive meal! I’ve never thought about turning chickpeas into little cakes like this…but these would be great on top of a salad for a healthy meal. I might need to give these a shot soon! 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Whilst it’s not good to hear that prices are also going up for you there David, at least I know that we’re not the only ones feeling that effect on our pockets here in the UK!
Glad you like my chickpea cakes. These definitely go great on top of a salad or even as a light starter! 🙂
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
A perfect little star for an easy meal! Perfect for making ahead and freezing like I do my veggie burgers 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Absolutely Rebecca. These are perfect little versatile chickpea cakes. They make delicious little portable snacks too!
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
Money talks can be quite upsetting especially in January. We just noticed today that prices have already gone up since 2018 started. Also, statistically it’s a depressing month due to several reasons including…money. Again, statistically, having splurged more than usual in December, many people face financial difficulties, and sadly, even insolvency. Well, let’s be more optimistic:) Anyway, January is a good time to eat healthy, light, and budget-friendly meals. We do like chickpeas, and guess what? We bought today 4 cans (Was a really nice deal). I don’t recall I tried chickpea&quinoa cakes, so there’s a good chance I’ll make them 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I agree Ben, January is an extremely challenging month financial wise. We’ll just have to both be more optimistic about it, even though as you said prices are going up all around us! Still at least you managed to get 4 cans of chickpeas for a good price because that means you can make 16 of these delicious chickpea cakes. And even if we don’t have any money this month, at least we can eat those! 😀
Susie @ Suzlyfe
And we are about to have a baby. GOOD BYE SAVING MONEY
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Exactly Susie, that is why you will NEED recipes like this! 😉
Ashika | Gardening Foodie
This is such a great post Neil, my husband and I were also just discussing how prices of EVERYTHING has skyrocketed, food , fuel, tuition fees….it is crazy. Meal planning really is a great way to save and we are working on that as well.
I love this recipe for chickpea cakes you shared….I saw a box of something similar in frozen food aisle but the price was so crazy and the ingredients listed were like something out of a chemistry lab…I have no idea what it was.
Definitely trying this recipe out…because I understand the ingredients too 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks for the kind comments Ashika. Yes, it does seem to be that everyone is in agreement that prices are skyrocketing at the moment! And, I’m glad you’re in agreement that Meal planning is a way we can all save money and help to make what money we have left go a little further.
Hope you get a chance to make these. They’re super easy, healthy and of course budget friendly too! 🙂
Shashi at SavorySpin
WOA – rail prices in the UK went up that much, seemingly overnight? Yikes! Neil, AWESOME post – I know so many people who complain about their finances but then get take out 5 days of the week! Anyway back to these chickpea cakes – I love the spices you have in these, even though my daughter isnt a vegetarian anymore, we tend to eat vegetarian meals 4 days of the week or so and these would be a wonderful addition to our rotation!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Rail prices did indeed go up that much here in the UK. 🙁
But what can you do Shashi? So many people complain about everything nowadays so I just wanted to say, and to show that there is something you can do about it by cooking frugally to save money but still eating delicious food! I’m really glad these would be a wonderful addition to your rotation of vegetarian meals too! 😀