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Spicy broccolini flower fritters with chickpea flour



Chickpea flour, also called gram flour, or besan, or garbanzo flour, is a wonderful product. It is gluten free, high in protein, iron and vitamins, and perfect for vegetarians. I payed $3.50 for a kg bag in the Indian store, and 1 kg goes a long way. My main reason for buying it was to make fritters, like onion bhaji, while the only Italian dish based on chickpea flour I am familiar with is Farinata, a kind of savoury pancake, so my repertoire was a little limited. Then the other day I was making some spicy marinated tofu, and I always have leftover marinade when I do this, so I thought of 'scooping it up' with a few veggies and the chickpea flour as a binder.




Broccolini flower fritters


I started with plain yogurt to which I added a little squeeze of garlic, some freshly grated ginger, a little lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander... (well, use whatever takes you fancy really). Then I added a chopped red onion and, not having much more in the veggie garden, I picked up the broccolini that had gone into flower. I chopped them, and then added enough chickpea flour to get a paste that I could spoon into a frying pan with hot oil. Well, that went down a treat, I guess that you can fry any leftover veggie that way.


Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

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Comments

  1. PremaOctober 4, 2011 at 3:06 PM

    Delicious and yummy recipe...

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlessandraOctober 4, 2011 at 7:44 PM

    Thank you Premalatha, I have a new layout for the blog and I couldn't get to the messages... glad that someone did before me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. muppyOctober 4, 2011 at 10:18 PM

    sounds great, i don't usually like chickpea flour but i think i should try again

    ReplyDelete
  4. Priya SureshOctober 5, 2011 at 7:59 AM

    Never seen this flowers here..fabulous fritters..

    ReplyDelete
  5. RitaOctober 5, 2011 at 6:01 PM

    Che bella idea, Alessandra, non ci avevo mai pensato! Grazie!
    Bellissimo anche il nuovo layout del sito, molto più immediato, semplice ed elegante allo stesso tempo. Brava!
    Un bacione!

    ReplyDelete
  6. LeniaOctober 6, 2011 at 1:42 AM

    Una idea molto originale!Bravissima,carina!xxx

    ReplyDelete

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