Chickpea Farinata (Socca) with Rosemary & Black Olives

Vegan chickpea farinata is a savoury pancake flatbread made with chickpea (gram) flour. It's fabulous served with hummus & salad for lunch.

A simple recipe with lots of flavour.

Once you try it, it will soon become a regular lunchtime treat.

Jump to:

• 🥘 What is farinata?
• 💭 Chickpea flour
• 🥣 How easy is it to make?
• 💭 Gluten-free flatbread
• 🌡️ Can farinata be baked in an air fryer?
• ⭐ Feel Good
• 📋 Vegan recipes in the cookbook
• 📖 Cookbook details
• 🧾 Socca toppings
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Variations
• 🥙 Serving chickpea flatbreads
• 💭 Top tip
• 🥗 More vegan lunch ideas
• 🥦 Living on the Veg
• Hit the heart
• 📖 Recipe
• Comments

🥘 What is farinata?

Farinata is a savoury pancake-style flatbread. It's easy to make and is unleavened so no raising agents or yeast.

It's also called socca, torta di ceci, and cecina.

A traditional recipe from Genoa, in the north-west of Italy in the Liguria region.

You can also find it in Gibraltar, an island on the south coast of Spain, where it is called calentita.

💭 Chickpea flour

The main ingredient in this chickpea pancake is chickpea fllour.

If you are looking for it and struggling to find it, it is also called gram flour, garbanzo flour or besan.

Chickpea Farinata is made from dried chickpeas which are ground to make flour.

It contains all the nutrients of chickpeas.

A good source of protein and iron and high in folate, manganese and magnesium.

🥣 How easy is it to make?

Super easy to make.

The mixture is made up in a jug, just like when you make pancakes.

Then it's poured into an oiled tray that's been heated, the toppings are added and it's baked in the oven.

Simples!

💭 Gluten-free flatbread

This easy chickpea flour flatbread is naturally gluten-free.

Chickpeas are gluten-free of course and none of the other ingredients include gluten.

🌡️ Can farinata be baked in an air fryer?

Yep, you could definitely use an air fryer to bake chickpea farinata.

You will have to do it in 2 or 3 batches, in baking trays.

I like to use brownie tins (20cm x 20 cm / 8 inch x 8 inch approx) which fit nicely in my air fryer, but do measure your own for the correct measurements.

If you have an air fryer with shelves like mine (love it!), you could bake in 2 to 3 tins at the same time.

Just remember to rotate them, as the top one always cooks quicker.

They will also be ready up to 10 minutes quicker in the air fryer.

⭐ Feel Good

This fabulous recipe comes from Feel Good cookbook by Melissa Hemsley.

Not a vegan cookbook, but plenty of vegan recipes in there or recipes that can be easily tweaked as we are so used to doing.

This cookbook is all about easy food that will make you feel good.

The photos are full-page and glorious.

Don't you hate a cookbook with not enough photos or those with no photos whatsoever?

I want to drool over the photos. I want them to tempt me.

And they did.

You can see my full review along with an easy chocolate mousse made with dates, which is also in the book.

Disclosure: I was sent this cookbook to review and given permission to share the recipe and photos.

📋 Vegan recipes in the cookbook

Penty of vegan recipes and many where you can just make a straight swap to vegan cheese or butter.

• Vegan recipes = 32 recipes
• Simple swaps to make it a vegan recipe = 33 recipes
• Unsuitable recipes = 35 recipes
• Total recipes = 100

There's also a page of swaps and tips for vegan versions of recipes.

📖 Cookbook details

Here's what you need to know if you fancy picking up a copy of this book.

• Title: Feel Good
• Author: Melissa Hemsley
• Imprint: Ebury Press
• Published: 19/05/2022
• ISBN: 9781529109818
• Length: 256 Pages
• Dimensions: 252mm x 25mm x 197mm (Hardback)
• RRP: £22.00

⭐ Credits

Farinata Photography by Lizzie Mayson. Recipe extracted from Feel Good by Melissa Hemsley (Ebury Press £22)

🧾 Socca toppings

You can go crazy when topping chickpea socca, but for this recipe, it was simply black olives, red onion and rosemary.

• Olive - you could add green olives instead or skip them if you really don't like them.
• Red onion - you could use white onion instead
• Rosemary - I use fresh, but you could use dried.

Printable recipe card below with the full ingredients.

👩🏻‍🍳 Variations

Here are a few ideas of other toppings you could add for a totally different flatbread.

1. Leeks - leeks, crushed mustard seeds and vegan feta to serve (not bake as it will melt).
2. Sundried Tomatoes - sundried tomatoes (pat to remove excess oil), red onion, jalapeno slices and fresh basil to serve.
3. Artichoke - jarred artichoke (pat to remove liquid or oil), red onion, garlic and fresh coriander to serve.
4. Garlic - crushed garlic, parsley and salt

🥙 Serving chickpea flatbreads

Here are a few ideas for serving these delicious crepe-style flatbreads.

Just remember it's best served warm.

• Soup - serve with freshly made soup
• Hummus - serve with hummus and salad
• Pasta - serve alongside pasta instead of garlic bread, with a green salad
• Dip - with a tasty dip for a snack, try this creamy vegan sriracha dip

🥗 More vegan lunch ideas

Here are a few more simple vegan lunch recipes for you to try.

• Green Power Lunch Wrap
• Ploughman's Lunch
• Quick Air Fryer Garlic Bread
• Sriracha Chickpea & Avocado Wraps
• Tofu Grinder Salad Sandwich

Check out my recipe index for more sweet and savoury lunch and lunchbox ideas.

🥦 Living on the Veg

Once you've signed up for my newsletter (box above) and followed me on social media, why not join my Facebook group Living on the Veg?

Such a friendly community with lots of recipes and chat. I'm in there every day chatting. It's such a nice place to spend time.

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