I will be the first one to admit that I have eaten many many many chicken nuggets as a child, even though junk food was just the occasional treat at our house. Still, every time we got to go to McDonald’s or the Greek equivalent, chicken nuggets was all I would order. Later on I realized how ridiculously small the portions were and I would just order one of those double burgers with fries, like normal people. But I digress. So, I really loved chicken nuggets. But now I am in this phase in my life where I really love chickens and my health, so they are out of the question. That’s why I was thrilled when I found this awesome recipe at Peachy Palate. As you probably already know though, I find it extremely hard to follow a recipe exactly the way it is, so I had to do my own twists. And my chickpea nuggets turned out pretty great, if I may say so.

Chickpea nuggets

Ingredients

• 600 grams of chickpeas
• 5 tablespoons of mustard (or spicy mustard, or honey mustard, if you are not vegan)
• 2 teaspoons tandoori spices or some cumin
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Breading mix or make your own by blending some rusks.
• Optional: (I didn’t do it now, but I will add it next time) any fresh herbs that you like, such as dill or chives

Instructions

Add all the ingredients into the blender or food processor, except for the breading mix.

Blend until it looks like a paste. More than 2/3 of the chickpeas need to be mashed.

Preheat the oven at 175 C -180 C and form little bite-sized balls. Roll the balls into the breading mix.

If you hate washing baking pans as much as I do, line your baking pan with some baking paper or aluminum foil.

Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy with mustard and or barbeque sauce or treat them like falafel and use them to fill sandwiches.

Tah-dah!

Now, I have to admit that I have huge respect for people who bake their stuff instead of frying them. However, there was some leftover dough and I fried a couple of those and they turned out so much more sinful and tasty! So I definitely recommend saving some dough and spoiling yourself. I fried them for just a couple of minutes from each side with just a tiny bit of olive oil, which of course they absorbed like the Sahara desert absorbs water.

P.S.: The batch photographed is my first one, which turned out a little dry because I didn’t have enough mustard. Don’t worry, yours will turn out crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, just as they should.