I won’t be making this week’s French Fridays recipe, Green as Spring Veal Stew, until next week, so I thought I’d throw in a catch up instead. I’m not sure why I didn’t make this when it came up in the rotation, and I’m also not sure why I overlooked this recipe until now. Socca is naturally gluten-free and the chickpea, in whatever form, is one of my partner’s favourite foods.
Unfortunately, I’m out of chickpea flour at the moment, so I substituted garfava flour, instead. It’s a blend of garbanzo bean (chickpea) and fava bean flours that’s a staple in Bette Hagman recipes. I’ve mostly moved on from using it, so I was glad to have an excuse to use up some of what I’ve got left. It wasn’t the greatest substitute – Kevin disliked the flavour of the resulting flatbread, but I thought it wasn’t bad. Next time, I’ll stick to pure chickpea flour.
There will be a next time because I loved the method and the loveliness of the flatbread that came out of the oven, garfava flour or no. I mixed up the batter the night before and was pleased to read that most of the cooking time would be for heating the pan. The bread itself bakes for only five minutes and is then broiled until crispy, and blackened in spots, for another three minutes or so.
It’s traditional to eat it hot, dusted with pepper, but Kevin said he would have liked it better with a dip. I agree. Some yogurt, mixed with lemon and dill, would have been nice with it. I’m looking forward to trying the chickpea version – paired with the yogurt dip, it may become a summer favourite.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Socca From Vieux Nice. And you can see what the rest of the French Fridays crew got up to this week here: Green as Spring Veal Stew
One Wet Foot 
I think that this would be best with some creamy spread/ dip (perfect summer food).
have a lovely weekend, Teresa!
Garfava flour sounds interesting (I’ve never seen it here), but it sounds like you probably wouldn’t recommend it. Thanks for the reminder about this recipe. I’m trying to eat less wheat and this was a good one.
We enjoyed this one, too…and it would be perfect as a dipper 🙂
Interesting. I don’t remember loving this, but happy that you enjoyed it (and will make again). I’ve never heard of that flour – so adventuresome!! 🙂
I really like the catchup posts as a reminder of good recipes that I forgot to make again. I enjoyed this. The technique was a good one. I remember spreading mine with goat cheese, which was delicious!
Everything is better with goat cheese. I have not made this recipe but it sounds interesting. The beauty of this group is all the new ingredients and techniques.
This one was great Teresa – I’ve never heard of that flour before but you should definitely try it with proper chickpea flour!
Might get around to this…. soon….
These pancakes were a surprise git for me – glad you liked them.
A aurprise hit!
One of my absolute favorites!!
I’ve never made this either, Teresa, and your post this week reminded me of that. I also have never even heard of Garfava flour but will pass on it – something I don’t need to know, huh? You’ve encouraged me to make this and, yes, I will serve it with hummus or a dip of some kind. Nice post. Merci pour l’idée.
I need to make this again to use up my garbanzo flour. I love the idea of serving this with a yogurt dip.