Vegan Frittata

My lovely Spanish teacher, Cesar (spanishlanguagecoach.com), is vegan and told me that he regularly makes tortilla with chickpea flour and water instead of eggs. Can’t say I was convinced but having tried the concept here, I am a convert to the concept.

You can make this is stages if pressed for time by fry-cooking the vegetables first then assembling the frittata later.

And don’t be shy of the fat. It is what gives everything the right taste and consistency.

Like tortilla, this is also lovely at room temperature the next day and great to transport i.e. for a picnic.

Ingredients:

400g root vegetables (I used mainly organic carrots and some leftover suede I had in the fridge)

1 onion

1 clove garlic

10 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp zatar or other herb mix

1 dried chilli

1 cup of chickpea flour

water

salt & pepper

Cooking Method:

In a bowl, stir the chickpea flour with enough water to make it roughly the same consistency as mixed eggs.  Season, then leave that to sit and settle while you do the rest.

Slice the carrots and other root vegetable into slices about 5 mm thick and fry them with the sliced onion and chilli in the oil for about 20 minutes until quite soft (you can cheat by the blanching the vegetables first, draining them and then frying them when they are cool). After about 10 minutes add the sliced or chopped garlic and the herbs or zatar. Spoon the vegetables out but keep the drained oil. Remove the chilli if you want. I normally leave it in as it will have become less hot with cooking if it is dried. Stir the vegetables into the chickpea mixture and let that sit for a bit too so that they all get to know each other. The consistency should be lie that of a sort of thick custard.

Pour about 2/3 of the oil back into the pan and re-heat. Stir the vegetable and chickpea mixture into the hot oil. With a flat wooden spatula just very gently fold  the mixture a couple of times and then let it sit and cook. Should take about 10 minutes. Using a flat lid, tune the frittata and gently cook the other side.

Season and serve with a salad or  green vegetable.  That’s it.