How To Cook With Chickpea Flour

Chickpea flour is a very common ingredient in vegetarian and vegan cuisine, in fact you have ever heard of it as an ingredient to make tortillas or for batters.

The truth is that it is a flour that is also widely used in Indian cuisine, so you can start by looking for Indian recipes with besan, which is what they call it. With it they make stews, curries, pakoras, thicken broths, make snacks …

4 basic recipes with chickpea flour

It is a very versatile flour, rich in proteins, with a creamy texture and binding power when cooked. It can act as a substitute for the egg even though it is not so elastic, but its ability to unite the doughs and weigh down can help us a lot.

1. Vegan potato omelettes

When making potato omelettes without eggs, we only need a few tablespoons of chickpea flour, mix them with water and vinegar or lemon juice to avoid that the omelette is flavored with chickpeas.

Ingredients

• 600 g potatoes
• 85 g chickpea flour
• 15 ml apple cider vinegar
• 50 ml of vegetable milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornstarch)
• 250 ml of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt and sunflower or olive oil for frying.

Preparation

1. Peel the potatoes, wash them and cut them into thin slices. Heat plenty of oil in a pan and fry the potatoes over medium heat, stirring and turning from time to time. When they are tender, remove them to a colander to drain the excess oil.
2. To make the “egg” mixture, put the chickpea flour, vinegar, non-dairy milk, cornstarch, water and salt in a bowl or in a blender and beat for 2 minutes or until smooth and homogeneous.
3. Mix the potatoes with the liquid. Heat some olive oil in a medium tortilla pan and pour in the mixture. Spread well over pan, cover and cook 7-9 minutes over medium-low heat (check occasionally).
4. When it has browned on the bottom, turn it over with another pan or with a tortilla turner (or a large plate) and cook it for another 5-6 minutes on the other side, also covered.
5. When this side has also browned, turn off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.

2. Vegan batters and breaded

Instead of using eggs, mix a few tablespoons of chickpea flour with water, stirring constantly, until you get a mixture of similar creaminess. You can also add vinegar or lemon, although being less than in the tortilla the flavor will be less noticeable.
If you want a very fluffy batter, add a pinch of baking yeast.

3. To make pakoras

It is a type of Hindu preparation of vegetables coated with chickpea flour.

Ingredients

• ½ zucchini
• ½ small cauliflower
• 1 sweet onion
• ½ broccoli
• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 3 tablespoons of rice flour
• ¾ cup of water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander (the seed)
• Approx. 3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Olive or sunflower oil for frying

Preparation

1. Mix the chickpea flour, rice flour and spices in a large bowl, and pour in the water little by little, stirring constantly, until it forms a silky dough, more or less like a béchamel sauce.
2. Wash and cut the vegetables into medium pieces.
3. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, pass each vegetable through the chickpea flour mixture and fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove it to a plate with absorbent kitchen paper.
4. To make them in the oven, preheat it to 200ºC. Make the dough with a little less water to make it thicker and more consistent. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, go by passing the vegetable pieces through the dough and place them leaving a separation between them. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.

4. To make sweets

Cakes, breads, pancakes, crepes … You can add a few tablespoons to the dough of any of them to give it a touch of creaminess and color. In the case of pancakes, you have a post I wrote about how to make pancakes, with a formula in which you can choose chickpea flour.

For the cakes and breads, try not to add too much chickpea flour, as it could be sticky.

The crepes are great with chickpea flour and cornstarch (cornstarch), which gives it the elasticity that this flour does not have.