Jen The Vegan

A farinata is a bit like a tortilla or omlette, but it’s made with chickpea flour. And it’s obviously way better than stuff made with eggs. In this one I added mushroom, sundried tomatoes and pine nuts. But you can put whatever you like in there – olives, capers,  artichoke hearts, peas, caramelised onions, beans, lentils, anything! I have previously done a sundried tomato, artichoke heart, olive and caper combo, that was pretty ace.

This is nice eaten straight away, or can be eaten the next day (good packed lunch food). And it’s gluten free.

• 200g chickpea flour (gram flour)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 600 ml water (warm)

• 3 tbsp olive oil (2 for the recipe, one for the roasting tin)
• 150g mushrooms, sliced
• 25g sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• fresh thyme

1. Put warm water in a bowl and sieve in the chickpea flour, salt and paprika – whisk whilst adding these, so you don’t get lumps – you’ll end up with a thin batter
2. Cover the bowl and leave for at least 2 hours (can leave it overnight)
3. Fry your mushrooms in a little olive oil
4. Optional – toast your pine nuts briefly in a dry frying pan (they take hardly any time at all, careful you don’t burn them like I did)
5. Preheat oven to 220 oC and put a baking tin (I used a square cake tin) in to warm, with tbsp olive oil in it
6. Remove any foam that has formed on the batter, and stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil
7. Pour batter in to warmed baking tin, and scatter the mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts and thyme on the top
8. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and paprika
9. Bake for around 20 mins until it has set and is browning on the top

This is the gram flour I used

This is what the batter looked like immediately after I whisked it. That's a "sauce whisk" - I find it way more effective than a regular whisk, and much easier to clean

As it was going into the oven (I'd forgotten to put salt and paprika on the top at this point, but I did remember before I cooked it)

Out of the oven and ready to be eaten