Chickpeas & Spice

We love these waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Although the recipe is written for spinach, feel free to use kale, collards, chard, or beet greens and if you have less than the recipe calls for that’s fine — we love it with 2 cups and it’s equally delicious with 1 cup.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms

black pepper

olive oil

For the waffles:

1 cup all purpose flour (optional Gluten Free: We recommend Minimalist Baker’s Flour Mix with Xanthan Gum)

1/2 cup oats blended to a rough flour (gf option, option to use oat flour)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)

2 cups chopped spinach

For the scrambled eggs (substitute tofu if you like):

4 large eggs

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Serve with:

Sriracha (optional)

Almond ricotta (We like Kite Hill)

Vegan butter (We like Miyoko’s) (optional)

Maple syrup (optional)

Preheat waffle iron.

Mix the dry ingredients for the waffles in a large bowl. Mix the eggs, olive oil, and non-dairy milk in a smaller bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir to just combine. Add the spinach to the batter and fold in. Leave to rest while the waffle iron preheats. When it is hot start making waffles. Anne’s waffle maker makes two large waffles with four quarters with this amount of batter. Their waffle iron does not need be greased, but feel free to add oil if yours needs it. These waffles may take longer to cook than a standard waffle because the spinach releases a lot of liquid. We like to check on our waffles once the steam dissipates, but we often cook them longer because we like a crisp waffle.

While the waffles are cooking, cut the mushrooms into thin strips and sauté with some olive oil for about 15 minutes until soft and slightly browned. In the last five minutes of cooking, pepper the mushrooms generously.

Scramble as much egg as you need for the current meal, we like an egg per serving. Whisk all the “for the scrambled eggs” ingredients in a small bowl. Preheat a large frying pan with some olive oil to medium or medium high heat. Pour in the egg and scramble to your liking.

Anne and Camille assemble this in different ways. Feel free to try one of ours, or make your own!

Anne skips the butter and layers the waffles with first mushrooms, then the scrambled eggs, and then sprinkles the ricotta cheese and tops with hot sauce. This gives a spicy/creamy effect as the hot sauce and the cheese interact.

Camille butters the waffles, then spreads the ricotta cheese thickly on top of that and tops with mushrooms and eggs. She often skips the hot sauce and sometimes tops with maple syrup. This is a buttery, creamy, sweet, and savory experience.

We would love to hear some of your creations in the comments. Enjoy!

Many cultures worldwide have a pancake or crepe traditionally made with bean flour. In Northern India there is the chilla, in Western India, the pudla. In Italy, it is called socca or farinata. Each of these variations is made with different traditional ingredients and techniques. Inspired by these recipes, today we are sharing how to make a thin, crisp gluten-free crepe that can be easily wrapped around filling. It’s spring time where we live, so our filling today will feature asparagus as it’s one of our all time favorite spring treats.

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus

zest from 1/2 lemon

1 bunch spring onions

salt

olive oil

For the pesto

1 bunch spinach, de-stemmed and thoroughly rinsed

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

3 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and drained

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 tbsp lemon juice (start with less to try)

For the Chickpea Crepe

1 1/2 cups chickpea flour

1 1/4 tsp sea salt

1 3/4 cups water

3 tbsp olive oil

3/4 tsp thyme

To make the chickpea crepes, whisk together chickpea flour, salt, water, olive oil, and thyme and allow to sit for 30 minutes. While crepe batter is sitting, make the spinach pesto. Start by soaking the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water until they are plump and re-hydrated. Note, if you are using sun-dried tomatoes in oil then you can skip this re-hydrating step.

Thoroughly clean and then blanch the spinach. To blanch, bring a small pot of water, well salted, to a boil. Put a bowl of ice water next to the stove. Add the cleaned spinach to the boiling water and cook about one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately immerse in ice water. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as you can and drain the sun-dried tomatoes. Add both to a food processor or blender along with the rest of the ingredients from the ‘For the Pesto’ list. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Heat a small amount of oil in large flat pan. Once the oil is hot, add 1/3 cup of chickpea batter to the hot pan. Tilt the pan to spread out the batter, and cook until golden brown and crispy on one side. Be patient, when the bottom is golden brown and crispy, the edges of the top will be starting to show color. Flip the crepe over and cook until speckled with golden brown on the second side. Cooking crepes to have a crisp but flexible texture takes some practice. Some tips are make sure your oil is hot before you add the batter. Don’t add too much batter. Allow the first side to cook until an even color is achieved before flipping. Remember, the first pancake rule applies to crepes as well. Your first crepe might come out under cooked and crumbly. Don’t be discouraged, keep cooking, be patient, and future crepes will be better.

Turn on the oven to broil. Rinse the asparagus and trim about 1/2 inch off the bottom. Arrange on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of salt and put in the broiler. Note, depending on your oven, this could be the top shelf, or a drawer at the bottom. Broil the asparagus for 7 minutes, remove and flip, and broil another 7 minutes for a total of 14 minutes of cooking time. The asparagus should be golden brown. Set aside to cool slightly. Once these are cool enough to touch (but still warm) slice into 1 inch long pieces. This is an optional step, but will make the food much easier to eat as otherwise the asparagus can become stringy when you bite into it.

Cut the spring onions lengthwise into thin pieces 3 inches long each. Fry in oil until golden brown. Salt and remove. Put them on a plate or piece of paper bag.

To assemble, spread the pesto on the crepe then add asparagus. Sprinkle with crispy spring onions and lemon zest. Form this into a hand wrap and enjoy!