savory chickpea pancakes

Before meeting my partner and especially before going vegan I barely knew what chickpeas were or what to do with them. It used to be just a legume with a funny name. Funny in Ukrainian too, as it is "нут", so kind of like "nut" but not really. 

But just like with lots of other foods veganism has made it possible for me to discover chickpeas for myself. There are so many things one can do with chickpeas. They are great when roasted and go well with any vegetable. You can use them to make things like hummus, vegan tuna salad, curries, wraps, falafel, etc. You can use chickpeas in desserts too to make brownies, cookies, and more. And the wonders you can do with aquafaba - liquid from a can of chickpeas! I actually talk about it a lot and a few of my recipes use this magic ingredient. 

Another thing you can do with chickpeas is turn them into flour. It's not something that everyone can do at home so thankfully chickpea flour is purchasable in most supermarkets in Berlin. It is a great gluten-free substitute and if you love chickpeas you will love using the flour too. 

Some cuisines around the world are more easily veganizable than others. For instance Middle Eastern and Indian food have a lot of originally vegan recipes and so it is easy to fall in love with them as you don't even have to change much or anything at all. 

For this reason, it is difficult to omit using recipes from such vegan-friendly cuisines on a vegan food blog. Not to mention many of these recipes are my go-to ones on a monthly or weekly basis. 

One such recipe is that of chickpea pancakes. I got the idea originally from a cookbook by Vegan Richa. In fact, I can highly recommend Vegan Richa for Indian and other recipes. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen cookbook taught me to make the absolute divine masala dosas and so basically improved my quality of life significantly. 

My recipe on this page is easy and combines my two favorite things - pancakes and vegetables, and it is gluten-free. You can use almost any vegetables for this dish and so it helps to use up any leftovers you might have. 

But of course most of all, this dish is delicious and so it is one of the main reasons I am so eager to share it. To keep that Indian-style flair just make sure to stick to the spices recommended and don't forget some fresh cilantro!

Tips and notes:

• Use Besan flour for this recipe. Besan flour is not the same as chickpea flour. I buy Besan flour at my local Asian store, it is very popular and I find all Asian stores have them. In case you cannot find Besan flour you can you chickpea flour but will have to adjust the water in the recipe. The most important thing is that the dough should be thin enough to make fluffy pancakes. 
• For this recipe you can use almost any vegetable, so feel free to experiment! For best results add cilantro leaves to the dough. 

Vegan Savory Chickpea Pancakes