Vegan MoFo Day 8 - Iron Chef Challenge: Chickpea Fritters

There was no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't participate in this weeks Iron Chef Challenge.

1. I have the day off

2. the ingredient is chickpeas

3. this can be orange-ified

What better way for me to pay homage to my all time favourite thing than to get creative in the kitchen with my all time favourite thing.

We made some sweet sweet chickpea lurve together, bouncing ideas of eachother.

"What's that Chickpea?, you'd like some ginger added? OK!"

"What's that chickpea? You'd like some peanut butter too? OK!"

Who was I to question the chickpea juju that was occurring.

Moments of culinary inspiration are not new to me but usually a recipe needs a tweak here and there. Not this one - it's perfect! AND I wrote down EVERYTHING as I was doing it. 

Some chickpea miracle has occurred!

Having the day off meant I could spend as much time as I wanted/needed to take a nice photo. Seeing as y'all are experiencing this with your eyes and not your taste buds I really really wanted the photo to do it justice and make you all want to make this recipe so as we can all join hands and sing chickpea praises together.

I hope it worked!

Chickpea Fritters
makes 8
Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium mushroom, diced up small
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, diced up small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
quarter cup onion, diced up small
1 and a half cups of cooked chickpeas
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
third of a cup grated carrot
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley
8 twists of fresh black pepper
Oil for frying

For the batter (modified from this recipe)
Half a cup of flour
Half a cup of fresh breadcrumbs
8 twists of black pepper
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
Half a cup of water (maybe a little less)

Method

Make up the batter by combining the flour, breadcrumbs and pepper in a bowl and whisking in the liquids. Add the water gradually until you get the right consistency.

Whisk it a few times during the next stage.

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan. When the oil is hot add the mushroom, ginger and garlic, stir and turn the heat down. 

Add the salt and stir.

Add the onion and chickpeas and cook through for about 5 minutes stirring every now and then.

Add the peanut butter and take off the heat. With a potato masher, smoosh all the ingredients together, you still want chunks of things so don't go atomic on this.

Add the carrot, parsley and black pepper and stir together to combine.

Using an eighth of a cup as a measure (or whatever you have to hand, even your hand!) form the mixture into 8 balls.

I was a bit concerned that this was going to be a bit sticky so I had a bowl of chickpea flour on stand-by. It wasn't needed at all.

• I don't own a deep fat fryer so these were fried in a small saucepan, one at a time in about three quarters of an inch of oil.

Heat the oil. Coat the balls in batter and gently plop into the hot oil, cook until golden brown and drain.

Sprinkle with salt.

There was a bit of batter left over so I coated up a couple of mushrooms and fried those too, it would have been rude not to!

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Lasagne/Lasagna

Not sure on the spelling of that as both seem to be used willy nilly.

I made a roasted Vegetable and Spinach Lasagna - it was delicious. I didn't follow a recipe I just made it up as I went along (it's the magic of my new kitchen I tell ya!). I always make this Tomato Sauce though and I always make a big batch and freeze it up for easy convenient use later. This is enough for two Lasagnas or two Moussakas or two of whatever and each portion serves 4 people - so you can divide it up according to your own preferences

Tomato Sauce

serves 8 Ingredients 1 tsp Olive Oil 1 Large Carrot, peeled and diced 1 Large Onion, diced 2 Cloves of Garlic, crushed 2 x 400g Canned Tomatoes 5 fl oz Red Wine or Vegetable Stock (Red Wine is soooo much better!!) 1 Bay Leaf 1 Tbsp Fresh Basil, diced 1 tsp Dried Oregano Salt Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method In a pan add 1 tsp Olive Oil and fry the Carrot and Onion for 10 mins stirring regularly. Add the Garlic, Tomatoes, Red Wine (or stock), Basil, Oregano and Bay Leaf and cook on a gentle heat for 20 mins. Take out the Bay Leaf and whizz with a hand mixer or in your blender. Season to taste.

Easy Peasy!

For the Lasagna/Lasagne I roasted a combo of veggies - Onion, Peppers, Aubergines, Courgettes, Garlic etc etc and I sauteed some Spinach and added some Roasted Garlic, Salt and Pepper to the Spinach then I layered up the dish starting with a layer of Tomato Sauce, then Lasagna, then Roasted Veggies, Tomato Sauce, Lasagne, Spinach, Lasagna, Tomato Sauce, Roasted veggies then topped it with my new creation which I shall call Chickpea Sauce. This is basically a Hummus recipe but with the addition of Soya Milk which makes it perfect for topping Lasagna with. It is seriously delicious and I was very happy with the result - so much so I wanted to share it with you right away. :) Chickpea Sauce 2 cups cooked Chickpeas 2 Cloves Garlic, diced 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil 2 Tablespoons Tahini About a cup of Soya Milk (more or less depending on how thick the consistency will be) Salt to taste Black Pepper to taste Squeeze fresh Lemon Juice Method Whizz up the Chickpeas, Garlic, Olive Oil and Tahini with a blender or stick blender. Gradually add in the Soya Milk to get the right consistency - you're after a thick dollopy kind of Sauce (you know what I mean, right?) Add the seasonings and adjust to your preference. And TAHDAH!

here it is served with a Green salad It was even better the next day where we had it with good old oven Chips :)

Cooking to Kasabian - Fire. Seriously GOOD CHOOOOON! GO VEGAN!