PROTEIN & VEGGIES
“Stuffed” Chickpea Flour Flatbread for Next Level Socca/Farinata
getting more protein and veggies into your flatbread
Socca and farinata are both chickpea flour flatbreads, though they have different names depending on the region.
Socca is the French name for this dish, commonly found in the region of Nice in the South of France. It’s a popular street food, often cooked in a wood-fired oven and served in large, crispy slices.
Farinata is the Italian name, particularly associated with the Liguria region. In Italy, it’s also known as Cecina or Torta di Ceci in some areas. Similar to socca, farinata is typically baked in a wood-fired oven and can be found in various forms throughout Italy.
Despite the regional differences, both versions are made from a simple batter of chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt, poured into a large pan and baked until crispy. The result is a delicious, gluten-free flatbread that can be enjoyed on its own or with various toppings.
For this recipe, first you create a basic socca/farinata batter as per this recipe of mine. Then you “stuff” it with other ingredients. Technically it’s not really “stuffing” the batter but more like “embedding” other ingredients into it, but “embedded” is not really a baking kind of word, hence the quotation marks around “stuffed” : )
Now you need to add into the batter a sautéed mixture, consisting of rehydrated TVP and a mix of chopped veggies, such as:
- bell pepper (any color)
- garlic
- onion
- mushrooms
- carrot
- brown sesame seeds
- tomato
The exact veggies to sauté is not really important. Quantity-wise, use common sense, since it should be an amount that works for the amount of batter you’ve created.
Make it extra snazzy by sautéing the TVP and chopped veggies in a flavored (e.g. Tuscan herbs) olive oil or adding some nutritional yeast into the raw batter before baking.
Then, just bake as per my regular chickpea flour flatbread recipe and that’s pretty much it! Pour it all out onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet in whatever shape suits you.
You want to get the poured out batter as thin as possible, since the thicker it is, the mushier the result. However, note that mushiness is not a bad thing at all (this textural quality also depends on what and how you’ve sautéed the TVP and veggies), since chickpea flour is just ground up chickpeas, after all. The mushiness also will usually go away after it cools.
You can also cook for longer and/or lower, e.g. half an hour at 350 instead of 15 minutes at 450. Experiment to get the results to your preference.
Sweet Variation
For a fruitier version of this dish:
In the dry mix, stir cinnamon, ground flax seed, hemp hearts and chia seeds into the chickpea flour.
In the wet mix, increase the amount of water and oil in proportion to the added dry ingredients.
After combining the wet and dry mix and letting the batter rest for ~30 minutes, add a blended fruit to the batter, such as pureed bananas or apples or any fruit, really.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
