Chickpea Chips – VeganMoFo Day 8

Today’s VeganMoFo prompt is about Food Flops. Taking inspiration from things you’ve made that didn’t turn out so well. I actually have a post about my own flops, but this won’t be about any of them, instead about last year’s Polenta Chips. Now, there’s actually no flop in that recipe, because it’s nice and tasty…but along the way, I realised that my body isn’t actually a huge fan of polenta, so I can’t eat them anymore! But they were nice, so I wanted to find something similar. Enter…chickpea chips!

Chickpea chips are made in a similar way to polenta chips, only with gram/chickpea flour instead of polenta/cornmeal! You can get something similar under the name of “panisse” in France, but those are fried and I baked these for ease.

You have to make the mixture of these in advance – it’s done by mixing a chickpea flour & water combination on the stove until thickened, and then pressing it into a tray, and leaving to cool. This forms a block, much like polenta, which you then cut into chips and bake.

Chickpea Chips

• Servings: 1 tray
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Ingredients

• 250g chickpea flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp stock powder
• 500ml cold water

to bake

• salt and pepper, to season
• spray oil

Directions

1. Mix your sifted chickpea flour with the salt and stock powder. Slowly pour in the water, mixing constantly, until thouroughly mixed (as lump free as you can get it!)
2. Pour the chickpea flour mixture into a large saucepan on low heat, and whisk continually for 5 minutes until very thick.
3. Turn out the mixture onto a lined baking tray, and spread until about half an inch thick. Leave to fully cool.
4. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F
5. Turn the cooled mixture out onto a chopping board, and cut into “chips” – you can be creative if you like but make them similar sizes so they cook evenly!
6. Place chips on a baking tray, season with salt and pepper, and spray with oil.
7. Put them in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Serve immediately.

Bolognese Fries – VeganMoFo Day 27

Day 27 of VeganMoFo already, wow! Today is about feeding the “young (at heart)” – which really could mean many things! I decided to go for a meal that would make a kid’s heart sing – it’s tasty, a little messy, and contains both chips and cheese!

This is a recipe for “bolognese fries” – or chips, if you prefer. Even better – the chips are homemade, and oil free too! To be honest, I usually make my chips the usual way with oil, but I found out that you can make them without oil quite easily (you just chop them up and pop them in the oven!) and that way works really well for this recipe, they aren’t as heavy tasting with all the bolognese and cheese on top too.

For the cheese on top, I used Tesco’s free from grated mozzarella. It’s a version of Sheese, if you can get that. It melts really well, as you can see. A cheese that melts is something you want for this dish, as it adds a nice creamy element!

I also used Tesco’s frozen vegan mince (I promise I’m not a Tesco ad!) for the bolognese but you could use whatever you have handy, or even rehydrated TVP if that’s all you have access to.

Bolognese Fries

• Servings: 3-4
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Ingredients

• 800g potatoes, cut into chips
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp marmite
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 250g frozen mince
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• Grated cheese to top

Directions

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F
1. Place your potato chips on a baking tray in one layer (you may need two trays for this). Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, and place in your preheated oven for 35 minutes, until golden. Leave the oven on afterwards!
2. Meanwhile, make the bolognese sauce. In a large frying pan, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until softened.
3. Add the oregano, basil, and rosemary, and fry for thirty seconds.
4. Add the remaining bolognese ingredients (everything else except the cheese) and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste and season.
5. Once the chips and bolognese are done, place the chips in a roasting tin.
6. Top the chips with the bolognese sauce, and then generously grate cheese on top.
7. Place the roasting tin in the still hot oven for 5-10 minutes, until the cheese melts.
8. Serve immediately.

 

Chickpea Ketchup Curry – Vegan MoFo Day 30!

It’s the last day of Vegan MoFo 2015! I hope everyone has enjoyed it.

For the final day, the prompt is “Fusion Challenge“. I decided to combine probably my two most used cuisines – British and Indian. This meal is unabashedly tasty, junky, comfort food. Like pizza, or mac and cheese, or a thick hot chocolate on a cold day…this is a meal that can become a classic food for when you need cheering up.

If you are a connoisseur of fine Indian cuisine, look away now. I don’t claim this curry to be authentic, but isn’t that what British curry is about? We took the cuisine and mish-mashed it into our own thing. And this takes that one step further.

This is a curry with chickpeas and ketchup…all served on a bed of chips from the local chippy!

We have a set way of making this. First, we make the curry on the stove top.

Then, we turn off the heat, cover it with paper/towel/whatever (this is just to keep any nasties out), and pop down to the local chippy, which is less than a five minute walk from our house.

For you non-Brits, a “chippy” is a shop where they sell mainly chips. Chips are “fries”, specifically thick cut ones. Chip shops usually also sell fish and other meaty things but you can buy chips on their own, which is what we do.

This is a bag of chips!

If you can’t get chip shop chips (I feel sorry for you) then serve this over potato wedges, steak cut fries, or just rice if you want.

Anyway once we’ve got our chips, we head home, fire up the stove again (add a little hot water to thin the curry if needed) and then spoon it over the chips. And enjoy!

Chickpea Ketchup Curry

• Servings: 2
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Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp chopped ginger (use about a half inch square piece)
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
• 5 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt & Pepper
• hot water
• Chips, to serve.

Directions

1. Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger until the onion is soft.
2. Add the spices, salt, and pepper and let cook for a minute or two.
3. Stir through the chickpeas and let them cook for another couple of minutes.
4. Add the tomato ketchup, and enough hot water to make the sauce fluid.
5. Cook for about 5 minutes, adding more hot water if needed. Stir through the lemon juice.
6. Serve on top of chips!