This creates a fiery and nutritious variation of one of my favorite meals. For a delicious feast, serve with tabbouleh, pita bread, and olives. Adzuki beans can be swapped out for black beans or chickpeas. To suit your tastes, adjust the spicy sauce and garlic.
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup bulgur
- 2 cups vegetable broth or stock
- 1 (18.75 ounce) can adzuki beans
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup stale whole wheat bread cubes
- 1 cup skim milk
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 (12-inch) skewers
Instructions
- Combine the bulgur wheat and vegetable stock in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes, or until liquid has been absorbed. Set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the adzuki beans, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, cilantro, hot sauce, and the egg. Mash with a potato masher or sturdy whisk until fairly smooth. Soak the bread in milk, then squeeze out the excess; add to the bean mixture along with the bulgur. Mix using your hands until everything is well blended. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- Wet your hands, and form the kofta into 32 oval shapes. Press onto skewers four at a time. Brush with remaining olive oil. Place on a baking sheet or broiling pan.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Turn over, brush again with oil, and continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes, until crispy.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 311 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 24 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 343 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I would compare this to a falafal. As suggested in the recipe introduction, I tried this with chick peas instead of adzuki beans. At the mashing stage, I used a hand blender to get it somewhat smooth. I left out the egg, and cilantro (personal preference). I used a bit of french bread that was fresh so I left out the milk. Then I pan fried them in a small amount of oil and my method wasn’t perfect because they did break apart a bit. We served them with Naan and garlic yogurt sauce (like tadziki). I’d never made anything with bulgur wheat so thank you for introducing me to a new ingredient. My daughter LOVED this dish, that is the seal of approval from our house. Wonderful recipe, thanks!
This is a great vegetarian option, but it needs some more flavor!
I thought these were very flavorful and very versitile. I ate them as the main course with other sides to accompany them, I ate them in sandwiches, in salads, ect…. I decided not to put them on kabobs. I baked them in the oven. A bit fragile, but tasty. I froze what I couldn’t use right away.
I wanted to love this recipe, I am a big fan of Middle Eastern meals..falafel, bean patties, etc…I found these to be rather bland which I was not expecting based on the spices and the texture was a bit ‘mushy’ in the middle even with extra cooking time. I wouldn’t use the recipe again, at least not without tweaking it a lot or maybe doubling the spices. Served with tzatziki sauce and hummus, which ended up saving the dish in terms of flavor profile.
Excellent!! We eat a lot of vegetarian patties but this one was great. Did not have any cilantro & used almond milk instead. Bake in the oven 30 min without using skewers just made small patties. Used just mustard as a condiment. Served with a baked potato and kale.
I substituted the bulgur for quinoa, and I’m not sure if it was the best idea. The flavour of these patties was outstanding, but they didn’t firm up very well. You definitely need a good food processor to thoroughly mix and blend the ingredients. I didn’t soak the bread in milk, because the bean mixture was super runny. Even after refrigerating the patties, they were sticky, and definitely couldn’t be shaped on the sticks. They were absolutely delicious though, and I topped them with some yogurt and tahini. I’ll definitely be making them again and I’ll update this once I’ve tried it with bulgur.
Made them into small balls and after flipping I squished them down a bit. I also used a food processor to mix it all together. Very good!
I really liked this! I soaked/cooked my adzukis – they take less time than other beans. I used extra garlic and hot sauce and they came out perfect. I squashed mine like small cookies – no skewers, and froze the leftovers. (I tried a few as larger patties and they didn’t survive the flipping.) A yogurt dip is essential. This made for a very inexpensive and yummy meal!
overall pretty tasty! i also used kidney beans and used my hand blender to make a thick mush of everything. i used an extra egg and added more hot sauce, onion and garlic. i omitted the milk for soaking the bread, just added crumbled dry bread. i made the balls in the shape and size that kibbeh/kofta usually is and put them on skewers (which was tricky) but it just seems best to make about golf ball size balls and forget the skewers. delicious with yogurt sauce, hummus, tabouli etc. as part of a meza dinner (instead of falafel, really) my husband and i both really liked this recipe and we’ll definitely make it again.
very tasty and a great alternative for vegetarians. I used kidney beans in replacement of the others though and they turned out great!
These were really good. Remind me of a black bean burger mix. I think these would make great patties, I shaped them into dumplings as they wouldn’t stay on a skewer, and I added seasoned bread crumbs and milk separately.
Very good. I couldn’t find adzuki beans which didn’t really surprise me but I found online that red kidneys are an acceptable substitute. They were pretty hard to crush though. Next time I may put them in the food processor before adding them in with the other ingredients. I think my kofta balls would have stayed together better if I’d gotten the beans mashed better. I served this with a quick yogurt sauce that I just made up as I went (yogurt, cumin, cayene, and salt). Very good.
eh, This was just “okay” for us. I topped it with plain lowfat yogurt to give it another dimension of flavor.
I didn’t want to soak my adzuki beans so I use knidneys that I had, I still found it quite tastey and would reccommend it. I had a hard time with the skewers so I think next time I will just make them small patties.
Good one !!