Saturday, January 16, 2010

Make your own Besan (Chickpea Flour)

I had been wanting to try the Besan Omelette that's in the archives over at Vegan Cook-a-Long...

...and my sweet sister sent me a package of Besan in my Christmas present - but I wanted to see if it was possible to make your own...


...drain a jar of homemade Garbanzo beans - rinse (or open a can)...
...spread them in a layer on your dehydrator...
...set the dehydrator on 145 and let it run for a couple of hours...
...put the dried garbanzos in the food processor...
...process...
...hmmmnnn...not fine enough - process some more...
...maybe the 25 year old Emmie is not up to the task - so get out the 25 year old Regal Spice mill...
...and continue processing...

...SUCCESS - perfectly smooth Chickpea Flour...

...then gather your
INGREDIENTS:

•2 cups besan (chickpea flour)
•1 onion
•2 tomatoes
•1 small piece of ginger (about 7 mm / 1/4 inch)
•8-9 leaves of coriander
•2-3 cloves of garlic
•2-3 thai chillies or chilli powder
•Water
•Salt to taste


mix everything together...

...spritz your pan with a little oil...

...pour in a little of the mixture...

cook until brown on both sides - I served mine with some applesauce and a biscuit for brunch and it was good - but I didn't really think it was very omelette-like - the texture was more like potato pancake - which I happen to love - but I think for eggy replacement I'll stick with scrambled tofu...

8 comments:

  1. Here in the UK we call chick pea flour 'gram flour' and it is lovely in cooking as it gives food a nice crunch.

    I often use it in my oatcakes. I taught English as a second language and I taught classes of Pakistani women who made pakoras for me out of chick pea flour. They were served with a mix of tomato ketchup and chilli sauce and they are so delish.

    What you made was similar to a pakora.

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  2. Good work! I think I would stick to tofu for the omelette too.

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  3. Fascinating! Chick peas are our favorite bean around here, but have never even heard of besan. Thanks for showing us how AND including a recipe for use. Would be neat for my girls to do with me.

    lisa

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  4. i Love gram flour! pakoras and onion bhaji, which you make in the same way as your wee omelettes, except with long slices of onion (cut an onion in half, and then slice it lengthwise). i also like to add some mustard seeds and nigella or black onion seeds into my batter.

    it's so easy to buy that i'm not sure it's worth trying to make. anyway, i'd have to go to the same place to buy the chickpeas!

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  5. Nice... do you have any other non-dehydrated recipes for Chick peas? I have a can and just don't know what to do with it.

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  6. OK these look too good and know you made the from scratch I know they would taste perfect.

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