Farinata
This is a poshed up version of a traditional Mediterranean street food. It’s a mixture between a tortilla (omelette) and a savoury pancake and lends itself to different additions and different meals – breakfast, lunch, supper. It’s great cold as a kind of finger food and it’s also cheap as chips!
Chickpea flour (also known as gram or besan flour) is inherently gluten-free and is widely available: World Food shelves in larger supermarket branches; Asian and other international grocers; health food shops. Brands to look out for include Dove’s Farm, Sainsbury’s, Elephant and Natco.
Preparation time
10 min
Cook time
20 min
Total time
30 min
Cuisine
Mediterranean
Servings
4-8
Ingredients
- 200g/1& 2/3 cups chickpea/gram flour
- 1 tsp vegan bouillon powder or crumbled stock cube
- 450ml warm water
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil for batter + 1-2 tbsp olive oil to grease the baking tray
- 75g/about 5-6 whole artichoke hearts, sliced (tin or jar)
- ½ red onion finely sliced (optional)
- 50g/about 8 whole sun dried tomatoes (chopped into thirds with scissors). If using the dried variety, soak in hot water; if the ready-soft in oil from a jar.
- About 8 pitted black olives. Use whole or chop roughly
- 20g vegan hard cheese (cubed) (optional) - we like Violife Prosociano, a vegan Parmesan-style cheese
- Black pepper and salt
- Handful of chopped dill and 1 tbsp chives, chopped fine with scissors plus a bit more of each for garnish
Instructions
- Pour the warm water into a large bowl and sieve the gram flour into it plus the vegan bouillon. Make sure you whisk constantly to avoid lumps. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave for at least a couple of hours - or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan)/450ºF/Gas Mark 7. You can be prepping the rest of the ingredients now if you wish.
- Remove any foam that has formed on top of the batter and then stir in the 1 tbsp olive oil, dill, chives, salt and pepper.
- Line the bottom of a baking tray (or oven proof skillet) with the 1-2 tbsp oil so it forms a thin coating. Heat in the oven for a few minutes until smoking hot.
- When the oil is hot enough, remove the tray from the oven and pour in the batter. Then add the olives, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, capers, red onion and vegan cheese chunks (optional). Or try the potato and pea option - see above!
- Bake in the oven until set and golden brown on top, approximately 15-20 minutes.
- Let it cool slightly then cut into triangles or squares to serve and sprinkle with the extra dill and chives for garnish.
Optional extras / notes
Keywords
