Turkey burger with pepper yoghurt and wedges
A tender turkey burger with roasted pepper sauce and oven wedges.
About 50 min · 595 kcal · 40 g protein per serving
Chickpea, feta and cucumber pita
Crushed chickpeas with feta, cucumber and mint in warm pita.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm pita puffs in 30 seconds a side in a dry pan
- Photograph the finished pita
- Time
- About 14 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 525 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 23 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- feta. Some feta is made with animal rennet; check the label if you are vegetarian.
- pitas. Pita can contain soya or sesame; check the label.
Cooking steps
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and crush them roughly with the oil and lemon juice, leaving plenty whole.
Fold in the feta, broken into small pieces, with the diced cucumber and the chopped mint. Taste before adding salt; the feta usually makes it unnecessary.
Warm the pita directly over a low gas flame, or in a dry pan, for about 30 seconds a side, until it puffs.
Split each pita and fill.
The useful detail
Warm the pita in a dry pan or over a flame rather than a toaster. Thirty seconds a side makes it puff and stay soft; a toaster dries it out and it cracks as you fill it.
Make it work for you
One serving is One filled pita. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Butter beans instead of chickpeas
Softer and creamier; they crush almost too easily.
Per serving: about 40 kcal less, about the same protein, about 4 g less fat.
Goat's cheese instead of feta
Creamier and less salty; it melts into the chickpeas rather than staying separate.
Per serving: about the same energy, about 2 g more protein, about the same fat.
Flatbread instead of pita
No pocket, so roll it rather than filling it.
Per serving: about 15 kcal more, about the same protein, about 2 g more fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A lunch where the chickpeas carry the fibre and a good part of the protein, with the feta adding the rest in a small, salty amount.
| Energy | 525 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 23 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| of which saturates | 6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 72 g |
| of which sugars | 9 g |
| Fibre | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1,080 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chickpeas | 300 g | FDC 173800Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, canned, drained solids | 417 kcal | 21.1 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| feta | 80 g | FDC 173420Cheese, feta | 212 kcal | 11.4 g |
| cucumber | 150 g | FDC 168409Cucumber, with peel, raw | 23 kcal | 1.0 g |
| fresh mint | 10 g | FDC 173475Spearmint, freshFresh mint is 44 kcal per 100 g on FoodData Central 173475, so the few grams a recipe uses add 2 kcal at most. That record has no sugars value, so the mint is listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| pitas | 120 g | FDC 174916Bread, pita, whole-wheat | 314 kcal | 11.8 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1050 kcal | 45.3 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 3 kcal to the whole recipe. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Keep the filling covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. It improves overnight. Warm the pita fresh.
- Reheating
- Not needed for the filling; warm the pita just before eating.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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