Being a gal who loves her chickpeas, I was eager to try my hand at the ‘Chickpea Cutlets’ recipe from Veganomicon. My book arrived, the ingredients were gathered, my hopes were high.

Sadly the cutlets didn’t work out so well. I don’t really know what went wrong as I followed directions nearly to the letter. I opted to make the baked version rather than the fried version and the only change I made was using 1 tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. They weren’t burned but came out really dry, hard and breadlike… more like chickpea flavored thick bread than a cutlet or burger. The recipe said that baking them “gives a toothsome chewy texture and firm bite”. Hmmm. I don’t think this is what they meant though, these were just too chewy/firm to be enjoyable. Oh well.

That said, the flavor was really nice. I did make my way through about a quarter of the thing before deciding to give up. I can tell it’s tasty when it comes out right. What do you think could have gone wrong considering my only change was the soy sauce?

The spinach on the side started out as inspired by another recipe from Veganomicon, the ‘Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes’ but the mealy, unflavorful tomatoes that I brought home didn’t seem worth eating once I cut them open. Um, when you pay more for locally grown organic tomatoes, aren’t they supposed to blow your mind with tomato goodness? But I digress. I used olive oil instead of peanut oil. The recipe also calls for onions which I don’t do unless under duress. It calls for salt, which I left out as well, cuz that’s how I roll.

So basically what became of a simple yet elegant recipe turned into spinach wilted in a bit of olive oil with ginger, garlic and lemon. Thankfully that’s all good stuff and good flavor and something I’d pretty much do anyway without referring to a recipe… therefore let’s call this one modified rather than messed up.

Update: Here’s my more successful 2nd attempt at making the Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlets.

1. Of cauliflowers and cutlets…
2. Vegan Tamarind Lentils recipe from Veganomicon.
3. Tempeh Stuffed Mushrooms on my own terms.
4. Oi Vey! Vegan Cholent from Veganomicon
5. Let’s keep things simple.