Put Vegetables In Your Socca

Genesis

Where has this been my whole life? Easy, creamy, rich, crispy, hot, fluffy, and healthy. Perfect for a cold January evening but probably perfect most of the year. I am not a doctor, but it’ll cure your asthma too (probably not though).

Ingredients

• Chickpea Flour, or “Garbanzo and Fava Flour”
• salt
• olive oil
• pretty much whatever you want, but tonight we used:
  • kale
  • sundried tomatoes
  • green onions
  • feta cheese
  • msg
  • thyme
  • paprika

To Prepare

I wrote previously about Socca but I’m too lazy make the link right now.

The thing is: you have to let the flour hydrate with water. Oh shoot I didn’t put water in the ingr– look you probably have water, right? Anyway it’s 1:1 flour:water. And it needs to hydrate for a half hour, which is just dead time.

Normally they call for 1 cup of flour for a 10-inch pan, but since we’re going to be using this as an entree and it’s gonna be crammed full of produce, increase to 1.25 - 1.5 cups. Just make sure you keep the 1:1 water ratio.

So after you mix the flour, just sautee some vegetables. Maybe you have an onion and some spinach. Maybe you have half a fennel bulb and some green cabbage. Maybe you have sundried tomatoes and kale.

Most of these things take all of 15 minutes to sautee, and, bonus, you sauteed them in your cast-iron pan which you just lightly rinse out and put into the oven that you started pre-heating. Probably by the time your oven finishes pre-heating and you’ve washed your chopping knife and cutting board, you’ll still have 5+ minutes to just sit down and relax before the thirty minute hydration period finishes.

Make sure you put a little oil in your pan before you put it in the oven.

So now take your half-cooled vegetables, herbs and spices, and stir them into the batter. Mix well. If you’re adding feta cheese, which is totally optional, cut into small cubes and stir gently after everything else is mixed. Seriously it’s great with or without cheese. I’ve also mixed in grated parmesan. I’ve also made it vegan. No Ragrets. YOLO.

Remove your dangerously hot pan from the oven and immediately start the broiler.

Your vegetable batter mix sizzles as it hits the oil in the pan. Spread the top layer approximately evenly but don’t disturb the bottom too much as it’s already started to cook. This may just be superstition.

Broil for 9 minutes. Actually, Your Mileage May Vary, but what you want is for the top to look like it’s dangerously close to being way too black and burnt, but it still has some yellow un-burnt parts. And that takes about 9 minutes if I use the second-to-the-top rack and the broiler in my cheap electric oven.

Remove from oven and serve while still steaming hot. As described makes a satisfying entree for two.

Reviews

• “This is so good.” – Vaughnda
• 10/10 I don’t know why but this is just stupid satisfying on a cold night, we’ve had it twice this week already.