I have a culinary problem that causes me much anguish. I have alluded to it in past posts, and the time has come to address it directly. So here it is: My digestive system will not tolerate onions unless they have been cooked to smithereens. And I mean smithereens. In stews or a chili where the onions have been simmered for hours and hours, I seldom have a problem. If the onion is chopped very fine and cooked fairly well and there is not too much of it, I’ll only have slight indigestion. (In such dishes—like the fish chowder at the Congo Church—I will indulge from time to time, knowing I’ll have to hit the baking soda and water as soon as I get home.) But if I eat something that has big chunks of not very well cooked onions, then I know I am headed for trouble—multiple doses of baking soda and water followed by Tagamet. And raw onions? Forget about it.

To say this puts a damper on my cooking and eating is an understatement. Onions provide a flavor and depth that when missing can make a dish seem blah and boring. In addition, it is often difficult when going out to eat to find items on the menu that don’t have onions, and dining at friends’ houses can be downright problematic. I was brought up to eat what was in front of me and to say thank you very much. So what do I do? Confess that I have an onion disability? Stay silent, pray that none of the dishes are laden with raw or lightly-cooked onions, and eat what is served? I have done both, and neither approach seems satisfactory. The first approach seems rude—what I have, after all, is an intolerance not a full-blown allergy—and the second approach can lead to misery, even though my affliction is only an intolerance. I long for a third way, which would be to eat the darned things and to suffer no ill effects. However, at my age, I know this is unlikely and that I have to stiver through as best I can.

This brings me to my own cooking, and, in a round-about way, to a recipe for chickpea burgers. First, and I thank the gods for this on a regular basis, I am able to eat garlic. (Raw garlic can be as problematic as onions, but as long as it is lightly cooked, I am fine.) Second, and this is probably why I love Italian food so much, many dishes, especially pasta, can be made using garlic rather than onion. According to Mark Bittman, there is even a notion among some Italian cooks that no dish should include both onion and garlic. (He does not subscribe to this notion.) Finally, I have come to realize that as long as a dish is flavorful, the lack of onion will not be such a problem.

Obviously, then, garlic is one of my prime substitutions for onion, but there are also other flavorings that will jazz up a meal—fresh herbs and a bit of cheese can really make a difference, and I use both in the following recipe for chickpea burgers. This recipe has been adapted from one of Mark Bittman’s in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. His recipe called for onion, for which I substituted one clove of garlic. Then, following some of his suggestions for flavoring bean burgers, I added fresh basil and some grated sharp cheddar. The results were all that I could have hoped for—a veggie burger that was full of flavor, so good, in fact, that these burgers will be a regular part of our diet. The garlic, the chickpeas, the basil, and the cheese all come together to produce a terrific Mediterranean taste. Thus far, we have only pan fried the burgers, but we are looking forward to grilling them, too. Another nice feature is that a single recipe makes four patties that can all be cooked at the same time. The leftovers reheat beautifully in the same way they are originally cooked—in a frying pan with a bit of oil.

Before giving this recipe, I want to note that although fresh basil can be expensive, there is no substitute for it. Dried basil just isn’t worth it. At many grocery stores, large packs of fresh basil are available at a fairly reasonable price. The big pack I picked up at Trader Joe’s was about $2.50, and I have seen similar prices at our local Hannaford. And for those who can’t find big packs of basil at a good price, take heart. Summer and farmers’ markets are coming, and for cooks who have a bit of sunny space in their yards, basil can planted in pots as well as in the garden.

Chickpea Burgers
Makes 4 large patties

2 cups of cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup of whole basil leaves
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1 egg
1/2 cup of sharp cheddar, grated
Olive oil for frying

In my above preamble, I forgot to mention how easy it is to make these burgers. You do need a food processor, which, in my opinion, is an indispensable piece of equipment in a home cook’s kitchen. Food processors don’t even have to be expensive to work well. Ours was cheap, and we have gotten many years of use out of it.  (And it’s still going strong.)

Put all ingredients, except for the oil, in a food processor. You don’t have to chop the basil or the garlic. The food processor will take care of that for you. (You do, of course, have to grate the cheese before adding it to the food processor.) Pulse this mixture until it is fairly well chopped and combined but not totally smooth. There should be rough chunks in the mixture. If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit of water. (I haven’t had to do this.)

Form the mixture into four patties, and chill for an hour in the refrigerator if you have time. Even after chilling, they will be a little crumbly, but they will hold together in the pan. Heat the oil in the frying pan, and when it is hot, add the patties, cooking on one side for five minutes. Flip carefully, and cook on the other side until brown and crispy, about five minutes, maybe a little less if the pan is hot.

Serve on a bun, and any of the toppings you would use on a meat burger would be good on this one as well. Lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and, yes, even a slice of onion if you don’t have a touchy digestive system.