Crispy Fried Chickpea Cake and Slaw Sandwiches Recipe

Hearty chickpea patties flavored with cumin and coriander, topped with a bright and nutty tahini slaw.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated June 06, 2024
Closeup of a Crispy Fried Chickpea Cake and Slaw Sandwich.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • Using a combination of finely ground and roughly chopped chickpeas gives the patties a satisfying texture.
  • Dredging the patties in panko, though a bit tedious, gives the patties a wonderfully crisp crust.

Sandwiches are one of my weekend lunch staples when I'm on a vegan diet, and I'm always looking for new delicious fillings. This time around? Crispy, herb-packed chickpea patties, topped with a bright slaw flavored with tahini and lemon juice. Think of it as falafel in a completely different (but equally delicious) format.

As a vegan, you get used to reading ingredients labels, almost as a point of habit. Sometimes I find myself walking down an aisle in the supermarket that I'd normally never step into just so I can peruse them. You'd be surprised at the number of food items you'd think are vegan that aren't (for instance, almost all flavored potato chips contain dairy-based whey or refined sugar in some form or another). I'm equally surprised by the things that I could swear must contain dairy products but turn out to be completely vegan-friendly.

On that list: Arnold Potato Buns. I bought myself a couple bags of and decided to work backwards, coming up with a recipe to suit them. It ended up being pretty straight-forward.

The obvious choice would have been to use my vegan burger patty recipe, but I've been itching to turn my chickpea cakes into a more substantial sandwich for a while. I used the same basic technique—combining cooked bulgur wheat with mashed chickpeas and aromatics, then breading and frying them—altering the flavors a little bit. Rather than the trio of herbs called for in that recipe, I used a dash of cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper with some straight-up parsley.

The key to getting coherent patties with a tender-but-interesting texture is to pulse half of the chickpeas in the food processor until they're very finely chopped, then combine them with chickpeas that are only roughly chopped, leaving you with a mix of big and small pieces.

Closeup of a Crispy Fried Chickpea Cake and Slaw Sandwich, sliced in half to so the interior of the chickpea patty.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

I won't lie: breading these patties is not the easiest thing in the world. They're a little bit delicate, so it requires some finesse to transfer them from their flour slurry to the panko bread crumbs, but it's worth the effort for the golden brown, crisp crust the crumbs produce.

To top the sandwich, I go with some classic falafel pairings: shredded cabbage, which I turn into a slaw with some tahini and lemon juice, along with onions, pickles, and pickled peppers. The assembled sandwich is big, filling, and packed with contrasting textures and flavors.

This recipe originally appeared as part of the column "The Vegan Experience."

February 2014

Recipe Details

Crispy Fried Chickpea Cake and Slaw Sandwiches Recipe

Prep 15 mins
Cook 30 mins
Active 30 mins
Total 45 mins
Serves 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Slaw:

  • 3 cups finely shredded cabbage (about 1/2 a small head)

  • 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

  • 1 small carrot, grated on the large holes of a box grater

  • 1 cup fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped

  • 1 tablespoon sugar (see note)

  • 1/4 cup tahini

  • 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Chickpea Patties:

  • 1/2 cup bulgur wheat

  • 1 medium clove garlic, roughly chopped

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin

  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

  • 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and dried on paper towels

  • 1/2 cup flour

  • 1/2 cup water

  • 1 1/2 cups panko-style breadcrumbs (see note)

  • 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

  • 4 hamburger buns (see note)

  • Sliced pickles and pepperoncini for serving

Directions

  1. For the Slaw: Combine cabbage, onion, carrot, half of parsley, and sugar in a large bowl. Combine tahini and lemon juice in a small bowl and stir with a fork until homogenous. Add half of tahini mixture to cabbage. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Massage cabbage until tender then let rest at room temperature while you make the chickpea patties. Set aside remaining tahini mixture.

  2. For the Chickpea Patties: Bring 2 cups of water to a boil over high heat. Add bulgur wheat and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain carefully.

  3. Meanwhile, combine remaining parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, and half of chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until a rough puree is formed, scraping down sides as necessary, about 8 to 10 short pulses. Transfer to a large bowl.

  4. Add remaining chickpeas to food processor and pulse until roughly chopped, 4 to 6 pulses. Transfer to bowl with chickpea/herb mixture. When bulgur wheat has drained, add to bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then fold mixture together, starting with a rubber spatula, and finishing by hand when cool enough to handle. Form mixture into four patties about 4 inches wide and 1 inch thick.

  5. Combine flour and water in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Place breadcrumbs in second medium bowl.

  6. Working one patty at a time, dip in flour mixture to coat, then carefully transfer to breadcrumbs. Patties will be quite delicate. To move them without breaking, lift them from the batter mixture gently from underneath with your hands or with a slotted metal spatula. Cover with breadcrumbs on all sides, then carefully transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining patties.

  7. Heat half of oil in a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the patties cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown on bottoms, about 3 minutes. Carefully flip and cook second side, swirling pan occasionally as they cook, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer patties to a paper towel-lined plate and season well with salt.

  8. Toast hamburger buns under a broiler. Divide half of the slaw evenly between the bottom buns, top with a chickpea patty, divide the remaining slaw on top of the patties, drizzle with remaining tahini/lemon mixture, add pickles and sliced pepperoncini as desired, and close sandwiches. Serve immediately.

Special Equipment

Food processor, large cast iron or nonstick skillet

Notes

Not all sugars, bread crumbs, and hamburger buns are vegan. If this is a concern to you, check the labels. Standard sugar is refined using animal bone char. Organic sugars are made with no animal products.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
668Calories
31gFat
83gCarbs
19gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories668
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 31g40%
Saturated Fat 3g17%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 1101mg48%
Total Carbohydrate 83g30%
Dietary Fiber 12g44%
Total Sugars 15g
Protein 19g
Vitamin C 70mg352%
Calcium 269mg21%
Iron 7mg40%
Potassium 769mg16%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

More Serious Eats Recipes