A chickpea patty. A vegetarian burger inspired by ancient Greco-Roman ingredients adapted for modern street food! But it could have worked equally well on the 'Thermopolia', the ancient Roman equivalent of fast food joints, which existed in most busy and bustling big cities of ancient Italy.

Why ‘Cicero's’ though? Because the Latin for chickpea is 'ciceris'. Was the noble and wise Marcus Tullius Cicero so down to earth and humble to be named after the common legume?

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar who played an important role in the politics of the late Republic. Plutarch explains that the name was originally given to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is more likely that Cicero's ancestors prospered through the cultivation and sale of chickpeas!  

Back in the day of my pop-up events, I needed to cater for a large number of vegetarian friends and customers, of course. I wanted to create something ancient inspired but being able to serve it on a street food form too, and also pack lots of flavour and something unique with ingredients that are: a. underused in my other recipes b. rarely used in modern cuisine! The story of Cicero was too good not to be used and inspire me and also the multitude of different spices that were utilised in ancient Roman recipes by Apicius! Enter lovage and celery seeds! Originally I was going to use fresh lovage leaves and lovage seed, but I've found the taste of lovage leaf extremely strange for the modern palate when it's raw and very very strong! I opted for the seeds only. Coriander and parsley were used a lot in ancient Greece and Rome, especially fresh coriander, but also coriander seeds. Since we are familiar with these from modern Asian and Mexican cooking, I chose not to include any in my spice mix here, but if you fancy my all means go for it! They are most suitable herbs!

I tend to serve it in a modern bun as it holds quite well this way. You can serve it on its own though with a salad for a healthier option perhaps. I've created a ‘smoked’ yoghurt sauce with chopped fresh coriander, olive oil, bit of salt, vinegar and something spicy, like lots of black pepper and mustard to go with it. Hope this will inspire you to create something similar in your kitchen!