Spicy Chickpea and Cauliflower Patties with Spring Onion Chapatis
Another lovely recipe from ex-Viva!Life Editor and Cookery Manager, Helen Wilson. She's kindly donated it from her own fab food blog, Lots of Nice Things.
Top Tip: mise en place
When cooking with a fairly long list of ingredients, make life easier by doing what the French call 'mise en place'. Get everything ready - ingredients and equipment - before you start cooking. If you have a longish list of herbs and spices, you might want to measure them out and put them in a small bowl ready to go.
Basically, it saves a lot of hassle (hunting for a sieve while the onions burn etc!) and makes the cooking go more smoothly.
Ingredients:
Patties
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
- 1/2 head cauliflower, broken into florets
- 2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 medium-sized red chillies, finely chopped
- 1 cm cube of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp asafoetida or fenugreek powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp gram flour
- 2 tbsp plain flour (or use gluten-free flour)
- 2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil to fry patties
Spring Onion Chapatis
- 1 1/4 cups plain flour or chapati flour (GF option: use gluten-free flour or a mix of this and gram flour (chickpea flour, also known as besan)
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 spring onions, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
Method:
1. Bring the cauliflower florets to boil in a medium saucepan of salted water. Turn the heat down and cook for around 5 minutes, until soft, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, see how soft the tinned chickpeas are. They should be squashed easily under a fork. If not, boil in water for another 15-20 minutes.
3. In a frying pan, heat the oil then fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes, before adding the rest of the ingredients, apart from the flours and the second lot of oil. Don’t have the heat too high, or the spices will burn. Allow the ingredients to soften and brown lightly, before removing from the heat.
4. Place the chickpeas and cauliflower in a medium-sized mixing bowl then add the onion and spice mix. Mash all the ingredients together thoroughly using a potato masher. Stir in the flour to bring the mixture together to form a dough. Divide it into 6-8 pieces and shape each piece into small patties.
5. If the patties aren’t sticking together very well, sprinkle in a teaspoon more of either flour and mix again. Shape all your patties, then fry them on a medium heat in the oil, turning until they are golden on both sides.
6. Either allow to cool or keep warm in a pre-heated oven while you make the chapatis.
7. Mix flour, water and spring onions together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon to form a dough. Roll out the dough into one long ‘sausage’ on a floured worktop and divide into 2 or 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a circle with your hands, then flatten into chapatis (around 3mm thick) using a floured rolling-pin.
8. Heat the oil in a saucepan to a fairly high heat, before adding in each chapati and cooking in turn. They will start to bubble slightly and brown quite quickly, so keep an eye on them and turn promptly. They will only take a couple of minutes each to cook.
9. Serve the patties with a chapati and a yogurt dip or homemade raita - made from plain soya yoghurt - plus sweet chilli or chilli and garlic sauce.
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